CheckMate is a weekly newsletter from RMIT FactLab recapping the latest in the world of fact checking and misinformation. It draws on the work of FactLab's researchers and journalists, including its CrossCheck unit, and of its sister organisation, RMIT ABC Fact Check.
You can subscribe to have the next edition delivered straight to your inbox.
CheckMate April 21, 2023
This week, CheckMate investigates claims that a government agency for Indigenous Australians has been discussing an explosive list of supposed "demands" to be realised through an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.
We also check in on David "Kochie" Koch (who is alive and well, despite suggestions to the contrary), and look back on outlandish claims made about Dominion Voting Systems — which this week accepted a $US787.5 million ($1.17 billion) payment from Fox News to settle a defamation lawsuit — following the 2020 US presidential election.
Voice documents: 'bombshell' or beat-up?
Not for the first time, bogus claims about the Voice to Parliament have been levelled at the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), the public service agency tasked with advising the government on policy affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The latest claims centre on a document released under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, which has been seized on by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who said it was evidence the agency had been actively discussing "demands" with Aboriginal groups and claimed it showed "the dangers" of enshrining an Indigenous Voice in the constitution.
In a speech to parliament, Senator Hanson used the document to reheat — and expand on — a misleading claim that the NIAA had devised an "11-point plan" to put into action should the Voice proposal be successful.
The alleged plan — said to include, for example, handing ownership of "all beaches and national parks" to First Australians — was previously revealed in a letter to Senator Hanson by an anonymous member of the public, who claimed to have found a handwritten note in a Canberra cafe.
According to AAP Fact Check, the NIAA has denied having written it, while a spokesperson for the senator said she had never sighted the original.
Undeterred, Senator Hanson doubled down in her recent speech (a version of which she also posted to Twitter), arguing:
"If any of these demands [were] met, 97 per cent of Australians would be made second-class citizens based solely on race.
"However, minutes of government organisations meetings with Aboriginal groups around the country obtained through a freedom of information request show these sort of demands are being discussed."
She then listed 20 supposed demands, among them: the "de-colonising" of Australia; a "black Parliament"; "a race-based rent tax from an open cheque book"; and "Aborigines [sic] being exempted from paying land tax".
Other social media users labelled the release a "bombshell".
But the document unveiled under FOI is less explosive than it sounds, offering little more than a summary of regional meetings among First Nations communities, held in the lead-up to the 2017 national convention at which delegates adopted the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The bipartisan Referendum Council's final report explains that the aim of these meetings was "to enter into a dialogue with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about what constitutional recognition involves from their perspectives".
Each meeting involved around 100 delegates (some 1,200 in total), who were asked to consider five alternative proposals for constitutional recognition, of which the Voice was one.
"In working groups, delegates examined and reported back on the reform options, including possible benefits, any concerns and their preference for what should be taken forward," the report states.
"[They] were advised that it was open to them to agree or disagree that constitutional reform was necessary or desirable, [to] indicate what might be a priority and that they could propose additional options for reform beyond those presented …"
But discussion is not consensus, and many of the ideas raised during these dialogues went no further — with the council's website explaining that suggestions were whittled down to just a handful: namely, those that reflected "consistent themes" or "guiding principles" and on which agreement could be reached.
"A ruler was run across all options raised over the course of the Dialogues and three emerged as meeting all the Principles — these were truth-telling, treaty and a Voice to Parliament. These became the focus of discussion at Uluru."
In any event, numerous so-called "demands" listed by Senator Hanson do not accurately reflect the FOI document's contents.
For example, the suggestion of land tax exemptions — apparently raised in Brisbane only — was not intended to apply to all First Nations people.
Rather, it was suggested as "relief from land tax for [their] businesses so they can employ and train more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples".
Meanwhile, the creation of a "black parliament" was indeed suggested by a speaker in Dubbo, though it was considered as a way to achieve political representation "other than through the proposed constitutional Voice".
CheckMate could find no reference to "tearing down statues", despite delegates at the Ross River dialogue noting their distress in seeing a statue of John McDouell Stuart erected in Alice Springs, which they said was "disrespectful to the … descendants of the families slaughtered during the massacres throughout central Australia".
'Kochie' caught up in yet another online hoax, this one deadly
Seven Network's Sunrise host David "Kochie" Koch is no stranger to being the face of online scams: the financial guru's image has been used by bitcoin scammers for years to lure unsuspecting Australians, with some losing tens of thousands of dollars to the dodgy schemes.
In a morbid twist last week, however, the cryptocurrency swindlers took things a step further and declared Koch to be dead.
"Remembering Kochie," an ad placed on Twitter via a hacked account read. "A life well-lived and fondly remembered."
Alongside a black-and-white photo of the news host looking upset, an accompanying caption eulogised Koch, stating: "Although saying goodbye is never easy, we take comfort in knowing that Kochie lived a full and meaningful life, leaving behind a legacy of kindness, warmth and compassion."
But as Koch himself has pointed out on Twitter, he remains "alive and well" and — as chairman of the Port Adelaide Football Club — had been enjoying the AFL's Gather Round in Adelaide when the fake obituary was posted.
"This stuff is really giving me the sh#ts," he tweeted.
So, what's the story with the ads?
As Crikey reported this week, while the ads contained a link to a website for a Massachusetts-based kitchen remodelling service, some users who clicked the link were "redirected to a fake ABC News article hosted on the domain MuskNews.net about Koch promoting 'a new cryptocurrency auto-trading program, Immediate Edge' in an interview with The Project's Waleed Aly".
"Needless to say, this interview never occurred and Koch has never endorsed this program."
From there, links led users to a website advertising Immediate Edge, which Crikey reported is a "get rich quick" scam in which people, promised great returns, deposit money which they are then unable to withdraw.
Contacted by Crikey, the hacked Twitter user deleted the death hoax ads (though identical ads placed by other users have since been spotted on Twitter by CheckMate).
As for Twitter's response to the scams circulating on its platform, Crikey reported: "[When] Crikey contacted Twitter about what the company was doing to stop serving spam ads, the company's press email address automatically responded with a poo emoji."
Looking back at false claims about election tech companies following $1bn Fox News payout
Despite its massive $1 billion-plus defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems this week, Rupert Murdoch's US broadcaster Fox News may not be out of the legal woods just yet.
While Dominion's lawsuit may have been put to bed, another similarly disgruntled election technology company, Smartmatic, is also suing Fox for allegedly implicating the company in vote-rigging claims.
Both cases centre on the aftermath of the 2020 US presidential election and allegations levelled by former US president Donald Trump and his supporters.
Fox News settled with Dominion just hours before its trial was set to begin, paying the tech company $US787,500,000 ($1.17 billion).
Following the settlement, Fox News issued a statement acknowledging that the court had found "certain claims about Dominion to be false".
Dominion CEO John Poulos, meanwhile, said: "Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and the customers that we serve. Nothing can ever make up for that."
So, just what sort of claims have people been making about Dominion and Smartmatic over the past couple of years? Helpfully, US fact checkers at PolitFact compiled a list.
Among the inaccurate, misleading and incorrect suggestions was a claim from Mr Trump — made just a week after the election and earning PolitiFact's most severe rating, 'Pants on Fire' — that Dominion had deleted 2.7 million votes in his favour.
Social media posts, meanwhile, falsely suggested that Dominion had shuttered its offices and that its executives were on the run, while Mr Trump's lawyer, Sidney Powell, wrongly stated that voting machines made by Dominion and Smartmatic were created for "changing the results of elections".
Elsewhere, incorrect claims that Dominion was owned by the family of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez were shared, including, according to Dominion's lawsuit, by Fox.
Edited by Ellen McCutchan and David Campbell
Got a fact that needs checking? Tweet us @ABCFactCheck or send us an email at factcheck@rmit.edu.au
