Editorial: Truth in political advertising laws too late for this election

Truth-in-political-advertising laws are to be welcomed, but they will come too late for the current campaign, writes the editor.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli (front) and Premier Steven Miles at the leaders’ debate on Wednesday. Picture: Liam Kidston

Compared with the US presidential campaign, Queensland’s election battle has been a staid – one might even venture, gentlemanly – affair.

On Wednesday, Premier Steven Miles and Opposition Leader David Crisafulli faced off on stage for the second leaders’ debate, where the underlying tone was reasonably polite and courteous despite the vigorous attempts at pointscoring.

The deep snarkiness and vicious personal attacks that have become an integral part of the fight between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris where nowhere to be seen – with the Premier’s interruptions coming across more cute than cutting.

More broadly we have, of course, seen no attempted assassinations – and there will not be any post-poll storming of the Parliament, or claims from the loser that the election was stolen from them.

It is just not the way our democracy functions. And this is why the claims of election-related violence from LNP candidate for Gregory Sean Dillon are important.

Mr Dillon told of how he had been assaulted on a remote road in western Queensland in an incident he likened to a political shakedown.

He said he was returning home from campaigning in Winton when, 20km from his home, he pulled over to help two people he thought had broken down. He said one of the men threw him against the car, threatened his family and gave him “some pretty explicit and expressly clear instructions about what they thought around my continued involvement in politics and what I should and shouldn’t do”.

“They were pretty, pretty clear in that I needed to keep my union-bashing mouth shut” and warned him they knew where his family were,” Mr Dillon told 4BC Radio.

It is chilling stuff. And it was good to hear Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski say he is taking the allegation very seriously.

As Mr Gollschewski noted: “Being a public official isn’t an easy gig. We want good people to put their hand up to be in public office at all levels; they should be treated with respect.”

Fortunately, the very thing that makes this claim so extraordinary – its rarity – is why the assault is news.

In this year’s election season in Mexico, in contrast, more than three dozen political candidates were killed. In the Philippines, more than 24 people died during its local elections last year.

Premier Steven Miles at the leaders’ debate on Wednesday. Picture: Liam Kidston. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire

Whatever our frustrations with our politicians, Australians rarely resort to violence. That is worth celebrating. A democracy where power changes hands without bloodshed is an increasingly rare thing. We are still the lucky country.

Far less life-threatening, the major blight on our current state election campaign is the garden-variety blight of the willingness of politicians to distort truths and to lie and rely on scare campaigns in their desperate attempts to sway voters.

And so, we have Labor insisting that the LNP will have to sack 17,000 public servants to pay for its election promises and will restrict abortion rights – claims built on speculation and drawing long bows rather than hard evidence.

The LNP has meanwhile branded a change to payroll tax rules for doctors as a “patients tax” – clever wording, but also misleading.

So much of what is infecting the US political system is because of the willingness of politicians to make things up. Allowing fear campaigns to become an accepted feature of our system is just asking for trouble.

We therefore welcome – with a healthy dose of cynicism – the vow from Mr Crisafulli yesterday to pursue truth-in-political-advertising laws if elected. We also call out Premier Miles for his weakness in refusing to do the same (instead sticking to his silly line that Labor has told the truth all campaign).

It is clearly too late to hope for a truce in this campaign. Both leaders are obviously far too committed to this race to the bottom.

But would it not be nice if they instead next time tried to win the support of Queenslanders through impressing them with detailed plans and dreams for the future, rather than demonising the other side?

ALBO’S BOMB PAYS OFF

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might have shown poor political judgment in his recent decision to buy a $4m-plus beachside property in the middle of a cost of living and housing crisis, but he has led some extraordinary political diplomacy when it comes to the Pacific region.

The genuinely passionate NRL fan instinctively understood the way to win back Papua New Guinea’s attention from Chinese suitors was through rugby league.

He cleverly plonked just shy of a billion dollars into the Foreign Affairs budget for “support for the Pacific region” – and then set about convincing the Australian Rugby League Commission of the benefits to it of granting a licence to a new team based in Port Moresby, while he made that team’s existence contingent on the Papua New Guineans agreeing that Australia would remain its “security partner of choice”. And it has worked – with this rugby league diplomacy a new foreign affairs masterstroke.

Beijing signing a policing pact with the Solomon Islands last year sparked fears the same could occur in PNG – our nearest neighbour.

But today, diplomats around the globe will be looking on in awe at the wonder weapon that our game of rugby league has proven to be.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Truth in political advertising laws too late for this election