Former prime minister Tony Abbott is among a group of advisers to a conservative lobby group that last month was found to have published false information about the Voice to Parliament proposal in Facebook ads.
Founded in 2018 and backed by wealthy donors, Advance Australia has twice been found to have breached electoral laws with misleading or false political advertising.
In December, it published a series of Facebook ads about the Voice, which gathered 2.2 million audience impressions and were seen most often by Queenslanders over the age of 65.
The ads warned Australians that voting yes at the upcoming Voice referendum would provide "one race of people with special rights and privileges".
That claim was flagged as false information by one of Facebook's fact-checking partners, RMIT University.
"We found that it was not accurate," assistant director of RMIT FactLab, Sushi Das, said.
"We spoke to some of the country's leading constitutional and legal experts. And in their view, the proposal for the Voice to Parliament did not confer any rights on anyone, much less special rights."
RMIT pointed to work by the Constitutional Expert Group, a body of lawyers that found "the Voice does not provide anyone with 'special rights'".
In early January, Mr Abbott defended the ads from Advance Australia as "perfectly accurate" and criticised Facebook's decision to remove ads which contained the claim.
"This attempt by big tech to censor one side of the debate, of the argument, is all part of the profound unfairness," he said in an interview with 2GB radio.
In the interview, Mr Abbott did not disclose that he was a member of Advance Australia's advisory council. 7.30 has confirmed his position with other members of the advisory council.
Neither Mr Abbott nor Advance Australia responded to questions about his role.
In a statement, Advance Australia said: "RMIT's interpretation of the effects of Labor's proposed constitutional change is flat-out wrong."
Advance's history
Advance Australia gained national attention in the 2019 federal election as a campaigner against Mr Abbott's challenger in the seat of Warringah, independent Zali Steggall.
Ms Steggall was targeted again at the last election, along with independent David Pocock, in a series of Advance Australia signs that depicted the pair as Greens candidates.
"In my experience, Advance Australia has form in running very divisive and fairly misleading campaigns, in a fairly underhanded way as well," said Ms Steggall, who is pushing for a ban on false political ads.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) ruled the ads were misleading and breached electoral laws, referring the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The AFP said in a statement it was still investigating.
Advance Australia says it has not been contacted by the AFP and that the AEC had originally indicated the ads were not in breach.
"When they asked us to take the material down after pressure from David Pocock and the media, we did so," it said.
The group was also found to have breached electoral laws in South Australia during last year's state election.
Independent candidate Heather Holmes-Ross was targeted with flyers from Advance Australia calling her "The Mayor That Killed Christmas", following a council decision about a carols event.
"I was reduced to tears," Ms Holmes-Ross said.
"I was absolutely devastated. I couldn't understand how it was OK for a group to say things that were so untrue and for me to not have any recourse at all."
The South Australian Electoral Commission wrote to Advance Australia asking it to take down the false material about Ms Holmes-Ross and publish a retraction but it did neither.
"I think that says that they believe they're untouchable, they're beyond the reach of the electoral commission," Ms Holmes-Ross said.
Nearly a year on, the electoral commission says it is still investigating.
Political connections
Advance Australia says it is independent of all political parties and has opposed the Liberal Party on policies, including the net zero carbon pledge and ABC funding.
However, the group regularly promotes the messages of Coalition MPs on its Facebook page.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a Country Liberal senator and prominent opponent of a Voice to Parliament, worked as Advance Australia's spokesperson before entering parliament last year.
And major donor Simon Fenwick, a Sydney businessman, was previously a significant donor to the Liberal Party, contributing $280,000 in 2018-2019.
Mr Fenwick serves as a director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a libertarian think tank that is advising Advance Australia on its campaign against the Voice.
In a statement, Advance Australia said: "Advance is not affiliated to any political party and will work with any politician who shares our goals of advancing Australia's freedom, security and prosperity."
It also defended its conduct in election campaigns.
"Advance will always campaign according to the rules, but will protest forcefully when they are applied unfairly."
Editor's note 20/01/23: This article has been amended to better reflect Facebook's actions regarding the ads. It did not downgrade any ads but removed some initially and others more recently.
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