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Independent MP Zali Steggall warns this campaign will be rife with dirty tricks.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Last week Mr Sharma was criticised for sending outpolitical brochures in the same teal colour as Ms Spender instead of the traditional Liberal blue,and not including his party affiliation or logo. He defended this,saying “no one owns a colour”.

Ms Steggall,the MP for Warringah on Sydney’s northern beaches,said she was aware of political dirty tricks before she entered politics in 2019,but she was shocked by the lack of regulation to tackle misleading political conduct and advertising.

“It seems like anything goes,short of actually misleading someone about how to fill in a ballot paper,” Ms Steggall said.

“The bill is about creating minimum standards that I think Australian voters are entitled to because the lack of it erodes trust in democracy and trust in the outcomes of elections,like we’ve seen with Trump and his constant challenge to the legitimacy of the 2020 election result.”

Ms Steggall said she expected to see a lot more disinformation this federal election,based on the recent elections for the Northern Beaches Council. In one example,there was allegedly a slew of calls to voters after midnight on the night before the election,falsely purporting to be from an independent council candidate wanting to discuss voting intentions.

The Australian Electoral Commission cannot act as a fact-checker for the claims of political candidates,but has a “stop and consider” campaign urging citizens to keep a healthy scepticism. The electoral commissionactively combats claims that undermine people’s right to vote or call into question the outcome of the election.

Ms Steggall said she was not criticising the electoral commission,which operated within the existing law,but she believed the law should change in line with similar legislation in South Australia and the ACT.

The reporting form goes live on Ms Steggall’s website on Sunday,and team of volunteers will verify reports. She plans to publicise examples from all over Australia,regardless of the target.

Ed Coper,a misinformation expert and author ofFacts* and Other Lies,said Australians should brace themselves for an onslaught of disinformation this election. Mr Coper is part owner of brand agency Populares,which has done some campaign work for Ms Steggall.

“Every election has its fair share of disinformation,but the difference with this election,which suggests we’ll see much more than usual,is the fact that there is a new political constituency of people who are anti-vaccine,anti-lockdown and anti-mandate and there will be a race to the bottom to try to capture that vote,” Mr Coper said.

Mr Coper said disinformation was not just about a piece of fake news,or a conspiracy theory or rumour,but it could also be about changing the context of something,such as resurfacing an old video and pretending it was new,or using someone else’s colours.

Political candidates took colours very seriously because it was a shortcut for the brain to make an association,he said. For example,royal blue for the Liberals,red for Labor,emerald green for the Greens,and purple and white for the electoral commission.

TheLiberal Party admitted to putting up purple and white signs in Josh Frydenberg’s and Gladys Liu’s electorates in the 2019 election. Some of the signs,which were written in Chinese,instructed voters of “the right way to vote” and told electors to put a “1 ” by the Liberal candidate’s name.

While this was not found to be illegal,Mr Coper said it was still disinformation because it changed the context of a political message to make it look official.

In February,Ms Steggall admitted a mistake in recording donations totalling $100,000 from the family of coal millionaire John Kinghorn.

Mr Coper said there was no way to know who was responsible for inflating Mr Sharma’s Instagram following,but there were many disinformation-for-hire outfits in Eastern Europe,Central Asia,and Southeast Asia that could perform this service.

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