Conservative political advocacy group Advance Australia is being criticised for corflute and roadside billboard election advertising in Canberra depicting Independent Senate candidate David Pocock as an “undercover Green”.
The doctored image depicts Mr Pocock opening his shirt in a ‘Superman pose’ to reveal a T-shirt with the logo of The Greens political party, while utilising very similar fonts to those used in the independent’s own campaign.
Mr Pocock condemned Advance Australia for “actively seeking to undermine democracy” through the advertising, which he alleges has been designed to “deliberately mislead voters” into thinking he is a Greens candidate.
His campaign yesterday lodged a complaint with the Australian Election Commission (AEC) and is exploring other options.
“This blatantly deceptive conduct is an attack on our democracy,” Mr Pocock said.
“Advance Australia’s actions that spread false and misleading information to voters underscores why it is so critical that we introduce federal truth in political advertising laws.”
The doctored images first emerged on social media at the start of April, when Mr Pocock mocked them on his own social media accounts.
“Did they mean to say, ‘Careful Canberra – Vote Pocock, get the Green Machine’? I haven’t played league but Ricky if you need a new recruit, give me a call,” he wrote in a post published 8 April.
‘What third-party groups do is up to them’ claims Seselja
Liberals ACT Senator Zed Seselja had little sympathy for his opponent when asked about the matter.
“What third party groups do is up to them; what I would say is that when you illegally chain yourself to a bulldozer in order to stop developments, it’s probably not unreasonable that people are going to compare you to the Greens,” he said.
“He obviously has a number of views that are very closely aligned with the Greens party; it’s up to him to explain the differences.
“If there’s anything incorrect in any of the criticisms of David Pocock, he should certainly take them up with those third-party groups.”
READ MORE: Inquiry calls for ACT roadside corflute, gambling donation bans
Advance Australia’s director is a former Canberra Liberals MLA, Vicki Dunne. Despite having previously worked alongside Ms Dunne, Senator Seselja denied having any links to Advance Australia.
“I know Vicki Dunne, but I’ve had no discussions with her.”
In early March, left-leaning political advocacy group Climate 200 were criticised for using a digitally altered headline to frame Senator Seselja negatively.
The headline on The Canberra Times article included in the Climate 200 post read “Liberal Zed Seselja spends $30 million in taxpayer cash on climate spin”.
The actual article’s headline in fact read “$30 million ad blitz is pre-election greenwashing, Labor says”.
“David Pocock is taking money, as is Kim Rubenstein, significant amounts of money from Climate 200, an organisation who have doctored headlines in order to attack me,” Senator Seselja said.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the controversy, the ACT Greens called for a ban on roadside election signs.
“People wouldn’t put these dishonest attack ads in their own front yards; it’s only because they’re anonymously put up on the streets that this type of misleading campaigning continues”, ACT Greens candidate for Canberra Tim Hollo said.
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