Less than 100 days out from the Victorian election, AI-generated advertisements are flooding social media and attracting thousands of views. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The ads depict a machete-wielding robber terrorizing a petrol station worker before firebombing the building; a woman giving birth on the roadside due to ambulance ramping and potholes; and a flood of water symbolizing Victoria's 'tsunami of debt' gushing from parliament steps towards a scared child.
These images are part of a social media campaign by a group called Fix Victoria. According to experts, publishing these ads in August cost up to $100,000, significantly more than most major parties and candidates spent.
Another group, Better Victoria, is also spending big on short ads contrasting Labor initiatives like the multibillion-dollar Suburban Rail Loop with investment in roads, schools, and hospitals.
But who is behind these groups, and are they affiliated with a political party?
Fix Victoria is run by experienced political operatives who previously held senior positions at the conservative thinktank Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). They began planning their ad campaign in May when a group of like-minded people started recruiting paying members to finance operations and ads.
Corporate filings show it was registered with Asic in early August by Deborah Henderson, who until June was the deputy executive director of the IPA. Its communications director is Andrew Hudgson, who held a similar role at the IPA until earlier this year. Its head of advocacy is Gideon Rozner, who spent six years at the IPA before working at an investment firm.
Fix Victoria is a separate entity from the IPA, and staff say it is coincidence that three of them previously worked at the thinktank, which is a long-term critic of Labor governments.
In November, Rozner told his social media followers he was rejoining the Liberal party to support its new leader, Jess Wilson. "The best place for me is to stand with the thousands of Victorians who will get around Jess Wilson to defeat this disgusting Labor government and save the great state of Victoria," Rozner posted on X.
When asked by Guardian Australia whether he is still a member of the Liberal party, Rozner declined to answer but said: "I've been around for a long time – and my views and affiliations are well-known."
Rozner says Fix Victoria is an "issues-driven, not politics-driven" organisation that wants to "ensure our leaders know that everyday Victorians want a plan to get out of the mess we are currently in".
"Fix Victoria is focused on the three key issues dragging our state down, that being crime, corruption and debt," Rozner says. These three issues happen to be key talking points of opposition parties.
"Victoria's tsunami of debt steals resources from policing so organised illegal tobacco criminals are making billions, recruiting vulnerable kids and making our streets unsafe," one 30-second Fix Victoria ad says.
A loophole in Victoria's electoral laws means voters may never know who is ultimately funding these ads. Groups publishing political ads during campaigns don't need to be registered as third-party campaigners unless they specifically promote or oppose a party or a candidate.
The Centre for Public Integrity's executive director, Catherine Williams, says Victoria's laws are narrower in scope than their federal equivalent. "Unless an entity meets the definition of third party campaigner, no disclosure obligations apply," Williams says.
During the federal election campaign, mandatory donation disclosures by one third-party campaign group revealed it had been bankrolled by the coal lobby. The group had been attacking Labor, Greens and independent candidates.
Transparency International Australia's chief executive, Clancy Moore, says while Fix Victoria does not meet the legal threshold of a third-party campaign group, its ads are "clearly trying to influence voting". "It's really important Victorians know who is behind these types of campaigns and what their political affiliations might be," Moore says. "There is a long history of third-party and fake grassroots campaign groups exploiting loopholes in electoral laws to try to influence elections."
Rozner says Fix Victoria has "invested considerable resources to ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws, in particular the Victorian Electoral Act". By avoiding reference to political parties or candidates, Fix Victoria's financial backers are shielded from public view unless disclosed by the group itself.