'Bizarre tricks': Labor hit by new 'fake news' media release stirring death tax fears

A media release fuelling fears a Labor government would reintroduce death duties has been called out as "fake news" by the public relations firm it appears to impersonate.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was last month forced to denounce "lies" on Facebook claiming a Labor government would introduce inheritance taxes - claims that were then adopted by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

A media release fuelling fears of death duties under Labor has been called out as "fake news" by the PR firm it appears to impersonate.

An apparent media release circulated on Monday purporting to be from a body called the Victorian Housing Action Network referenced a speech by Victorian state Labor MP Danny Pearson in 2017 in which he stated his personal support for death duties of 5 per cent.

The email appeared to impersonate Essential Media, a major left-aligned communications and research firm, by using the email address "[e-mail]". It called on Mr Shorten to "disown and rule out" death taxes, which he has already done.

Essential Media handles communications for the Everybody's Home campaign, a coalition of groups pushing for greater action on affordable housing.

Major players in housing policy said they had never heard of the "Victorian Housing Action Network" nor its alleged contact person, Sally Kellerman, who shares the name of an 81-year-old American actress.

Michael Fotheringham, executive director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, said he was unaware of such an organisation or person, as did Kate Colvin, who has worked on housing and homelessness policy for 15 years.

There were no Google search results for Ms Kellerman and her so-called action network, and the supplied mobile phone number rang out to an unidentified voicemail system.

There is a Housing Action Network based in Sydney but its project director, John Stott, said it had no link to any Victorian operation using a similar name. "We wouldn't do anything like that," he said.

Essential Media's executive director, Peter Lewis, labelled the email "fake news" after being made aware of its existence by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

"Having worked extensively on homelessness issues, we can confirm this is a fake advocate and fake body," he said.

"We know there are a range of bizarre tricks being used to undermine the democratic process but this seems to hit a new level of sophistication where a fake media release promotes fake news."

Death duties - taxes on inherited money or property that were abolished in Australia in the late 1970s - have been the subject of several fake messaging campaigns during this election.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison publicly speculated last month that death taxes could be part of a secret deal he claimed Labor had "struck" with the Greens.

Material being shared on Facebook at the time purported Labor and the Greens had agreed to introduce a 40 per cent death tax, and linked to a media release by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg that said death taxes were "not out of the question" under Labor.

The Liberal Party denied responsibility for the posts but Mr Shorten nonetheless accused it of spreading "low-rent, American-style fake news which is actually a lie".

As recently as May 3, Senator Hanson was telling voters that Labor and the Greens planned to introduce a 40 per cent death tax. The video remains on her Facebook page.

The creation of fake lobby groups to give the appearance of grassroots support is known as astroturfing and has become commonplace in US elections.

In February, a group called Defenders of Self-Funded Retirees, which was campaigning against Labor's franking credits policy, was outed as a collection of trucking industry lobbyists and a Liberal Senate candidate.