In a disturbing example of fake news National has been found to have been using grossly misleading figures in one of its advertisements.
From John Anthony at Stuff:
The National Party has been forced to remove a social media ad which used misleading figures to attack the Government.
A recent Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decision said the National Party Facebook post consisted of a video featuring MP Gerry Brownlee talking about a recent National Party announcement regarding proposed changes to National’s tax policy.
Brownlee said: “Bracket creep as it’s called is a big problem and this Government is going to take an extra $17.7 billion dollars over the next years out to ’20/’21 out of the pay packets of New Zealanders.”
The Complainant R Parry said this in his complaint:
This basic maths error by a senior member of the National Party grossly misleads New Zealanders who see this advertisement.
The problem with the ad is that National’s own figures suggested that the cost would be $650 million a year, way less than the claimed figure. The $17.7 billion is the figure for all tax changes made by the Government.
It is disturbing that one of its senior people should show such economic illiteracy although the ad obviously went through its media team. And in future I think we should take all National advertising with a grain of salt. And a calculator.
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