Climate Change in Australia (Part 1)

Not a great ad. And the kid’s a kiwi. Why not highlight that a coal baron has been funding anti renewable propaganda via a right wing think tank connected to the Libs and Murdoch? Seems like a better starting point than a bad Channel 31 skit. That said good luck.

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I rarely watch free to air TV. Just saw an ad for “Australian Coal” where they were taking about getting expert advice from Japan on “cheap, reliable, base load energy”. Also mentioned it was “low emissions”. WTF.

Can you complain to someone about an add being factually incorrect?

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I believe you can actually.

https://adstandards.com.au

By the technical rule of the law, it’s misleading and breaches accc laws too.

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Thanks. Will be doing so.

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The normal trick they use is to talk about ‘low emissions coal,’ by which they can legally argue that they just mean ‘coal generation with lower emissions than current coal generation’. If you use high-quality black coal and a state-of-the-art power station, you can MAYBE cut emissions by 10-15% over existing power stations. but the high-quality coal ain’t where our current stations are (Latrobe Valley brown coal is one step up from peat, damn near the least emissons-efficient coal there is) but they won’t mention that of course.

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Let us know how it goes - would love to see how that ad is spun

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Complaint submitted. This could be interesting. If you never hear from me again you know why.

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Welp, that was quick. Complaint was rejected because they’ve determined the ad was “political”, not about a product and lies outside of their authority. Apparently you can say any old ■■■■ in political ads.

Did they say who it was for?

That’s the weird part. It says it’s a “political ad without taking a political viewpoint”. All very weird.

Political ads need to have the “brought to you by…” at the end. Did this?

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Good on you for trying.

Did they say what authority it lies under? (pardon the pun)

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If it is political advertising it’s a protected free right speech under the constitution. There is no one responsible for it.

#fakeconstitution !!

Sounds like someone could have fun with a mock ad for it.
Saying coal is full of vitamins and this unicorn here told me how good it is for the environment.
It’s a Japanese unicorn, so you know you can trust him.
Why would a Japanese unicorn lie?
He just has no motive.

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I don’t think there is any right to free speech under the Australian constitution is there?

Yeah there is. Not 100% on the mechanism, but I know the high court has ruled there is an inferred right to political speech as part of the right to participate in political process.

Can’t find any decent link that outlines it. I’ll keep looking.

Edit: it’s only political free speech, not free speech. And way more restrictive than the US, I.e. parties get in trouble for dodgy racist pamphlets

This has previously been used as a reason for not having any restrictions on political donations as well.

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Yep the best I can tell is that it’s more based on government legislation. That the government can’t restrict political speech. Not like the US where free speech can be used as a defence to say what ever you want.

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Nope. Afraid not.