Who: “We’ve said the public service here in Canberra has to be reduced by 12,000 over the first two years as a starting point.” Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey. The claim: The Coalition will cut 12,000 jobs from the public sector in Canberra. The facts: Joe Hockey and others in the Coalition leadership say they will

Who: “Now, the thing about private health insurance is it’s lower income people that work really hard to hang onto their private health insurance, because it gives them choice and it gives them a sense of security about their healthcare. And they’ve been punished by a lot of changes that Labor has made.” Shadow Treasurer,

Who: “The average industrial period of lost time … is one third of what it was in the Labor five and a half years compared to the Howard ten and a half years.” Minister for Workplace Relations, Bill Shorten. The claim: Days lost to industrial action during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government is one third of the

Who: “If we were to build this entire 1,748km high-speed rail project by 2035 it would cost less than Mr Abbott’s unaffordable, unfair paid parental leave scheme over the same period of time,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The claim: Building the high-speed rail project over 21 years would cost less than the Coalition’s paid parental

Who: “By cutting corporate taxes we…boost real wage growth,” The Coalition’s ‘Our Plan’. The claim: That wages will increase as businesses pass on the reduction in tax through lower prices, having the effect of increasing real wages. The facts: The claim relies on American studies cited in the Henry tax review. However, the US company

Who: “It [a budget surplus] matters because Australia doesn’t fund itself as a nation. We are running a current account deficit of around $50 billion every year, so we borrow from the rest of the world to fund our lifestyle and that is clearly not sustainable.” Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey The claim: The budget deficit

Who: “I was speaking to a major manufacturer in NSW the other day… [the energy bill for his NSW plant was] 52 million dollars a year. Of that 52 million, 12 million is the carbon tax….the biggest input cost at the moment which is detracting from manufacturing is the carbon tax” Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey.

Who: “[Health concerns are] justified on the scientific evidence. We know from evidence from field studies… that low frequency noise actually causes health problems, physiological damage to people.” Senator Nick Xenophon The claim: There is scientific evidence that wind turbines cause health problems. The facts: In July 2010, the National Health and Medical Research Council

Who: “There’s [an internal] review of the initial [departmental] decision …You can have the [administrative] process we’re talking about or you can have a judicial one, but you don’t have to have both.” Shadow minister for Immigration Scott Morrison, speaking about Coalition immigration policy. The claim: Australia could operate a non-statutory, administrative process without judicial

Who: “Children are bombarded with advertising for unhealthy food every time they turn on the TV … Aussie kids are watching 20 hours of TV a week on average and, when they are targeted by strategic advertisements for that long, it has a very big impact.” Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. The claim: Australian children watch 20

Who: “The GST cannot be changed without the agreement of all the states and territories.” Tony Abbott “No federal government can change the GST without the consent of each state and territory.” The Australian The claim: The Opposition denies it has any intention of either increasing the GST rate (currently 10 per cent) or extending

Who: “[Australia’s Triple A credit rating] owes everything to the reforms of previous governments… and almost nothing to the spending spree of the current government. Yes, Mr Rudd can stand up and show us his chart and demonstrate that by comparison with some other countries, Australia’s debt and deficit position is not so bad. But

Who: “The Coalition’s cut to the company tax rate will cost $5 billion over the forward estimates. This reflects the direct costs to revenue from the tax reduction.” Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott and Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey. The claim: The plan is to cut the corporate income tax from 30 to 28.5 per cent beginning

Who: ‘No jobs growth in Labor heartland [western Sydney]’ and ‘the region faces a “jobs deficit” of up to 500,000 places by 2051’ The Daily Telegraph 6 August. The claim: There has been a failure to create jobs, especially private sector jobs, in the western suburbs of Sydney and that the region faces a jobs

Who: “By June 2013, NBN Co is expected to have passed 1.7 million premises.” Government media release. The forecast from NBN Co. Ltd was that by June 2013 a total of 570,000 premises would have active service. The Claim: That by the middle of 2013 the NBN would have been available to 1.7 million households

Who: Welcoming a report into Medicare by a coalition of health and community leaders the Greens have stated that “Our healthcare system is not universal if some people can’t afford to see a doctor or get treatment. The Greens believe that your health shouldn’t be determined by your bank balance and that’s why we remain

Who: “Australian jobs growth is now the slowest in over 15 years” Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. The claim: That the labour market and the economy generally are weaker than under a Coalition government. The Coalition has claimed it will create one million jobs in the next five years and wants to make the case that

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Who: “The government is trying to bully the public service into a set of the numbers that clearly do not properly represent the state of the budget,”  Joe Hockey. The claim: The government has pressed the public service into publishing budget figures that are wrong and misrepresent the state of the budget. The facts: Treasury

Who: “Government debt, as a proportion of GDP, is on trend to grow from 12.1 per cent now… to 77.9 per cent of annual GDP by 2049-50,” PricewaterhouseCoopers. The claim: The claim is that Australia’s debt to GDP ratio will skyrocket unless the government gets spending under control and reforms taxation. The facts: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

Who: “We have got… $10 billion going into renewables” Christine Milne. The claim: The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) will use all of its $10 billion to invest in renewable energy. The facts: The CEFC will be allocated $10 billion over five years. The purpose of these funds is to “facilitate increased flows of finance

Who: The current paid parental leave scheme only pays “a welfare wage”. Tony Abbott. “We need to recognise that paid parental leave should be a work place right and not a welfare payment.” Christine Milne. The claim: That payments from the present paid-parental-leave scheme are inadequate as it is not a replacement for previous wages.

Who: “We take more refugees per head of Australian population than any other nation in the world. We take either the second or third most in absolute terms, depending on how you calibrate your calculation” Chris Bowen. The claim: Australia takes the most refugees per capita and takes the second or third most in absolute terms. The facts: The  UNHCR

Who: “The Australian public now have certainty, Australians demand to know that the prime minister they elect is the prime minister they get and that is underlined by these reforms.” Kevin Rudd The claim: A change in caucus rules means that a popularly elected Labor party prime minister cannot be challenged from within his or

Who: “Abolishing the carbon tax will take $5,000 off the price of the average new home.” Tony Abbott. The claim: The carbon tax has increased the cost of an average new home by $5,000 and removing the tax will decrease the price by $5,000. The facts: The claim is based on a July 2011 report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA); “research

Who:“We are now the largest Indigenous employer in Australia” Mitch Hooke, Chief Executive of the Minerals Council of Australia. The claim: The mining industry is the biggest employer of Indigenous Australians. The facts: Data for Indigenous employment by industry from the 2011 census shows the mining industry employed four per cent of the Indigenous workforce.

Who: “If there is more gas, the basic rules of supply and demand will work. If there is more gas then the prices will become competitive.” Cheryl Cartwright, Chief executive of the Australian Pipeline Industry Association. The claim: The removal of restrictions on Coal Seam Gas (CSG) will result in increased production which will cause

Who: “Australia is one of only eight countries in the world that has a AAA credit rating from all of the three international credit rating agencies.” Penny Wong. The claim: Australia is one of only eight countries with a AAA credit rating. The facts: There are eleven countries in the world that have a AAA

Who: “There really are not enough wealthy people to make a jot of difference. So I have worked it out, let’s think about the top one per cent, if you imposed a 75 per cent average tax rate, ok, not a marginal tax rate, this is horrendous. … You would only raise between 20 and

Who: “Everything Labor has done has made it easier for the big 4 banks to make bigger profits off the backs of consumers.” Adam Bandt. The claim: The Labor Government has made it easier for the big four banks to increase profits. The facts: A formal deposit insurance arrangement was introduced at the time of the global