Labor's Medicare Attack Ad Sparks Controversy
The Labor Party's attack ad misrepresenting Peter Dutton's comments on Medicare has sparked controversy, leading to accusations of misinformation and plans to remove the misleading posts.
The controversy centres around an attack ad posted online by Labor, which showed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton saying "Medicare is dead".
The clip has misrepresented Mr Dutton's original statement, as the full quote was "Medicare is dead if we can't make it sustainable today".
It comes after the Albanese government attempted to pass a misinformation and disinformation bill to prevent misleading content.
The edited video was shared widely by Labor's official social media accounts, including as a paid advertisement on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
An investigation by the ABC found it was viewed nearly 200,000 times and was reposted by Labor's Multicultural Affairs Minister Julian Hill and Labor candidate Ali France.
Asked on Tuesday whether he had allowed misinformation to spread, Mr Albanese denied the accusation.
"He tried to introduce a GP tax, so a tax every time people went to the doctor that would have had to have made a payment. So abolishing bulk billing," he told the ABC.
"Now, bulk billing is at the heart of Medicare. That's why we've tripled the bulk billing incentive."
"Former prime minister Tony Abbott removed him because he did a shocker of a job."
Labor ran the campaign in the 2017 election, then again at the 2022 election.
It has been revived once more for the upcoming 2025 election despite Mr Dutton declaring he would "guarantee the growing funding of Medicare".
"Labor is again resorting to a Medi-scare campaign - it's third attempt in less than a decade," he said at a campaign event in January.
"I stress today, the Coalition will guarantee the growing funding of Medicare."
Following complaints from the Liberal Party and reports from the ABC, Labor is reportedly planning to take down the posts.
