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OpenAustralia relaunches site to monitor election leaflets ahead of poll

Leaflet

One of the leaflets uploaded ahead of the September poll

Government accountability group OpenAustralia has relaunched its website electionleaflets.org.au ahead of the September federal election.

Since its launch in 2010, the site was used at the federal election and various state elections to monitor the leaflets being distributed by various political parties.

“At the last federal election we had eight weeks of intense leafletting and there were 650 odd leaflets in that time but while we are still a long way away from the election we are already getting a number of them,” Matthew Landauer, director and co-founder of OpenAustralia.

The website allows users to upload the election advertising they receive and shows in which states and electorates particular material is being distributed. In the last five days the site has already received a numerous of leaflets from the various major parties and also minor parties such the Greens, Democrats and Climate Sceptics.

“Candidates who are leafletting themselves will often upload the material to the site themselves just as another way of getting their message out,” said Landauer.

“As a voter you have the opportunity to look at what is being distributed in your area and also in nearby areas. We also want to expose dirty tricks and make them less likely.”

“At the last Federal Election there were a bunch of stories that came out of leaflets directly uploaded to our site and we would expect that to happen again this election.”

In the 2007 election the Coalition was rocked by a scandal in the seat of Lindsay after Liberal Party volunteers distributed fake election pamphlets, which purported to be from an Islamic organisation did not exist.

Landauer set up his site in the wake of that scandal but says it is not just dirty tricks the site is targeting. He argues that one of the key benefits of the site is that voters and journalists can compare what the major parties are promising in different areas.

“You can look at how leaflets from one party are different in different geographical areas and that can be quite interesting. In the past we have seen parties make promises to people in one area and then promise something contradictory to another area,” he said.

“In the past you would never have known about that. Our hope is to keep everyone honest, keep it straightforward and make sure what’s out there is visible.”

Nic Christensen 

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