A job election announcement about ambulance ramping in South Australia has been found to have violated the state election law because it is “inaccurate and misleading”.
Key points:
- South Australian Liberals have referred to the election commission as “ramping worse than ever”
- After taking into account the SA health data, the election commissioner found that the claim was inaccurate
- Labor was ordered to withdraw the announcement and issue the corrections
The ad was first rolled out in late February, a few weeks before tomorrow’s poll, and features an ambulance officer, Ashleigh Frier, who claims that “ramping is worse than ever”.
South Australian Liberal Secretary of State Sascha Meldrum referred the announcement to State Election Commissioner Mick Sherry.
He found the statement about the rampage to be “inaccurate” and in violation of electoral law, as it contradicts SA health data showing that ramping times have dropped by 47 per cent since its peak in October.
Labor was ordered to delete the commercial and, no matter where “this statement was distributed”, to publish corrections stating that the claim was incorrect.
The ad has been broadcast on television and has been published on social media in recent weeks.
In a letter to Mrs Meldrum, Mr Sherry continued: “I am satisfied, on the evidence before me, that the statement ‘… ramping is worse than ever …’ is misleading and inaccurate to one. material extent to which a reasonable reader would be “substantially or substantially misleading”.
Health was a terrible battleground during the current election campaign, with Labor and Ambulance Union attacking the government over ramps and response times, and the government striking back by spreading its health spending and pointing to the former Labor government’s transforming health policy.
The government said Labor had waged a “fear campaign” and was “caught lying”.
“This is a big embarrassment on the eve of the election,” said Treasurer Rob Lucas.
“It is the central claim that the Labor Party has relied on for the entire election campaign and they have known since March 1 – over two weeks – when SA Health released the official figures that the claim they made in their announcement was not right. “
Shadow Treasurer Stephen Mullighan admitted that the commissioner took “exception” to the announcement, but defended Labor’s broad claims about the prevalence of the ramps.
“There is absolutely no doubt that ramping has escalated massively over the term of the Liberal government,” he said.
“There can be no doubt about the seriousness of the ramping crisis facing the health care system.”
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