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RMIT ABC Fact Check

RMIT ABC Fact Check was a partnership between RMIT University and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check11 May 2021AustraliaEconomy and jobs
Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, Former prime ministers

“70 per cent of Australia's trade [is] now with countries committed to net zero.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Fair call

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull made a fair call. At the time the article was published, 20 of Australia's 30 biggest trading partners had already committed to reaching net-zero emissions. Together, these 20 countries account f…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check16 Apr 2021Australia
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister

“It is true that at this stage of our rollout, it is actually better than where Germany was, better than where New Zealand was, better than where South Korea and Japan was ...”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Misleading

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Morrison's claim is misleading. When he made his claim during an April 6 media conference, Australia's vaccination program had been underway for 43 days. At that point, a total of 854,983 jabs had been given — equiva…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check11 Mar 2021AustraliaPolitics and government
Chris Bowen, Shadow Health Minister

“[B]y the time the Morrison Government did a deal with Pfizer, a billion doses had already been accounted for around the world.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Drawing a long bow

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Bowen's claim is drawing a long bow. A definitive list of the deals made between Pfizer and various countries for its vaccine is not publicly available. But a tally compiled from government and corporate media releas…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check23 Feb 2021AustraliaEconomy and jobs
Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer

“And let's not forget that going into this crisis, we saw welfare dependency at a 30-year low because we'd got that unemployment rate down.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Yes, but more to it

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Yes, the data shows welfare dependency is at a low, but there is more to the story than Mr Frydenberg's claim suggests. Fact Check relied on two measures of "welfare dependency" when assessing Mr Frydenberg's claim: the…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check18 Dec 2020Australia
Christine Holgate, Former Australia Post CEO

“Taxpayer money was not used by Australia Post to purchase Cartier watches as bonuses for employees”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Not cut and dried

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: The question of whether the purchase of the watches involved the use of taxpayers' money is not cut and dried. Australia Post — wholly owned by the Commonwealth — is required by law to operate commercially. And, as Ms H…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check1 Dec 2020AustraliaPolitics and government
Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader

“[W]e had a 15 per cent reduction when we were in government. Up to … the end of last year, there had only been a 1 per cent reduction under this government since it came to office in 2013.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Close to the mark

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Albanese's claim is close to the mark. Annual greenhouse gas emissions fell 14.4 per cent under the last Labor government. By December 2019, under the Coalition, they had fallen 1.4 per cent. The quarterly figures re…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check19 Nov 2020AustraliaEconomy and jobs
Margaret Gardner, Chair of the group of eight universities

“People who do humanities degrees and social science degrees get jobs at about exactly the same rate as science graduates,”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Fair call

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Professor Gardner's claim is a fair call. Employment rates, covering either full-time or part-time work, for humanities and social science graduates are roughly the same as those for science graduates. Census data for 2…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check29 Oct 2020AustraliaHealth
Steven Miles, Queensland Health Minister

“Deb Frecklington sacked 4,400 health workers last time imagine our health response if we hadn't reversed those cuts.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Overstated

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Miles's claim is overstated. While data shows a cut of the magnitude suggested by the Health Minister was made by the LNP, the LNP restored some of that cut itself, with Labor finishing the job when it came to power …

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check28 Oct 2020AustraliaEconomy and jobs
Deb Frecklington, Queensland Opposition Leader

“Queensland has had the worst unemployment record in Australia for the last four years thanks to Labor.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Wrong

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Ms Frecklington is wrong. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that Queensland did not have the highest unemployment rate in the nation across the four years leading up to the outbreak of COVID-19, whethe…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check15 Aug 2020AustraliaRomanian
Bill Shorten, Former opposition leader

“Aged care is a federal responsibility”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Fair call

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Shorten's claim is a fair call. Individual aged care facilities are legally responsible for the safety of their residents, but the Federal Government is responsible for the aged care system as a whole. The Government…

Checked by RMIT ABC Fact Check16 Jul 2020AustraliaEconomy and jobs
Paul Fletcher, Minister for Communications

“If you look at the numbers in the budget papers, the ABC's funding is rising. It's all laid out in the budget papers.”

RMIT ABC Fact Check rated this: Misleading

RMIT ABC Fact Check says: Mr Fletcher's claim is misleading. The budget papers show that nominal funding for the ABC's operational budget increases marginally within the current triennial funding cycle from 2019-20 to 2021-22. However, when Mr F…