The advertising regulator has found that Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting misled consumers with an unsubstantiated claim that gas was clean, in an online advertisement in The Australian last year.
Ads for Hancock Prospecting’s recruitment webpage futureaustralianjobs.com ran in the digital edition of the Weekend Australian in October 2024.
The ads featured the text: “Our clean gas keeps the lights, and factories, hospitals, and shops open from Tokyo to Toowoomba.”
In its majority decision, upheld on 5 February, the independent regulator said the broader public would understand the word “clean” in this context to mean the energy source “does not produce emissions or have a negative impact on the environment”.
Advertising in Australia is self-regulated. An independent body, Ad Standards, exists to enforce the industry’s voluntary code, and describes its community panel as “the centre piece” of this system.
The panel concluded Hancock Prospecting’s ad had breached two sections of the AANA environmental code: that environmental claims in advertising should “not be misleading or deceptive or be likely to mislead or deceive”; and “be able to be substantiated and verifiable”.
As part of its defence, Hancock Prospecting had said it considered the ad was “truthful and factual” because gas creates less carbon dioxide than coal when burned, was compatible with renewable energy in that output can be adjusted, and created fewer pollutants than coal and oil.
“As a result, Hancock Prospecting’s use of the words ‘our clean gas’ is not misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive,” the company said. “The facts noted above are supported and substantiated through research and industry experience.”
In an email to Guardian Australia on Friday, a Hancock Prospecting spokesperson added: “Given that nuclear energy is prohibited and that so-called ‘renewables’ carry a heavy environmental and material burden, we maintain that gas is the cleanest and most practical option to meet Australia’s growing energy demands.”
In its decision, the regulator said the advertiser had provided information on why gas was cleaner than other energy sources, not why it was completely clean.
“The Panel considered that without further disclaimers explaining the limitations of the word ‘clean’ in this context, the advertisement was misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive,” it said.
The climate communications group Comms Declare, which made the complaint, said in its submission that gas “emits substantial amounts of environmental pollutants throughout its extraction, transport and when it is burned for energy” and had “substantial negative health impacts”.
In its response to the decision, Hancock Prospecting said it had “discontinued” the advertisement.
The Australian was also approached for comment.
