A string of US-style lobby groups with deep ties to fossil fuels are “duping” unsuspecting members of the public by falsely claiming to represent “ordinary Australians”, one of the nation’s top misinformation experts has warned.
Professor Daniel Angus said the groups — including anti-Indigenous Voice group “Advance” — were operating sham fronts, falsely claiming to be “grassroots” movements when they were in fact run by vested interests.
“They present themselves as a genuine grassroots initiative, in order to gather those who think that they are a friendly group that is there for their interests,” he said.
“They can actually dupe or gather genuine grassroots involvement unwittingly.”
“They can actually dupe or gather genuine grassroots involvement unwittingly” — Professor Angus
This “farming in” of “support” under false pretences was often used by the vested interest entities — overwhelmingly fossil fuels — to falsely claim they were genuine “grassroots” movements.
Supercharging the practice, many of the entities even raised donations from unsuspecting members of the public under the false pretence they were genuine movements.
That money helped spread more disinformation and fund campaigning for more public “donations”, perpetuating the cycle.
Professor Angus is the lead author of a major new Australian Research Council (ARC) study into misinformation, which examined public discourse ahead of the May federal election and analysed 22,000 ads.
It found other fake “grassroots” entities — fronts being used by vested interests — included “Australians for Prosperity”; “Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance”; “Nuclear for Australia”; and “Australians for Natural Gas”.
“Fake ‘grassroots’ operations overwhelmingly pushed ‘right wing’ content”
The study has been provided as a submission to the Senate inquiry into climate misinformation.
Appearing before the inquiry, Professor Angus said the practice of “astroturfing” — vested interests running fake “grassroots” operations — was now rampant in Australia, dominated by fossil fuels.
Imported from the US, the underhanded practice was “warping” public discussion and undermining Australia’s democracy.
“Campaigns designed to appear grassroots are in fact coordinated, well-financed, and often linked to major political parties, donors, or lobby groups,” the ARC study found.
“Fake ‘grassroots’ entities included ‘Australians for Prosperity, Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance and ‘Nuclear for Australia’,”
Professor Daniel Angus. Source: QUT
Professor Angus said the study found the sham fronts were overwhelmingly “right wing” or “conservative”, often using populist “culture war” narratives to gain attention, before injecting fossil fuels disinformation.
“What we find is that this has a lot to do with the new discourse around climate change denial, which is more now delay and obfuscation,” Professor Angus told the inquiry..
“So the style of a lot of these groups is to try and slow down transition.
“You’re going to find a lot of groups who are trying to position confusion in the debate or trying to slow any kind of meaningful change — for example, uptake of renewables or any other strategy.”
“Climate change denial is more now delay and obfuscation” — Professor Angus
There were lobby groups across the political spectrum, Professor Angus said, but the important difference was that the “right wing” and “conservative” astroturf groups hid their funding.
He said pro-climate groups, including Parents for Climate and Farmers for Climate Action, “made it clear who they are”.
“They are who they are on the label,” Professor Angus said.
Astroturfing allowed vested interest to push their messaging and advertising far more effectively, given the public tended to be much more wary of information when it was known to be coming from industry and lobby groups.
By “farming in” genuine support — and attracting “donations” — under false pretences, the vested interest groups sought to further mask their true identities, further entrenching themselves and the effectiveness of their disinformation campaigns.
Advance, which pretends to be a “grassroots” group of “ordinary Australians” aggressively spreads fossil fuels propaganda. Source: Advance
The study was conducted by Professor Angus and 15 co-authors at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, or ADM+S, which is comprised of more than 300 “members”.
They include 20 chief investigators; 44 associate investigators; 11 “partner investigators”; 36 research staff and over 100 “affiliates” — external individual experts who “collaborate with the ADM+S Centre”.
Of the 20 chief investigators, 19 are university professors, including from the University of Sydney; UNSW; the University of Melbourne; RMIT University; Swinburn University; Monash University; Western Sydney University; and the University of Queensland.
Professor Angus cited a “classic example” of astroturfing in the US, where a group pretended to be grassroots movement of employees of retail giant Walmart.
The group was in fact tied to Walmart’s management — and was a secret “union busting” exercise.
“That was an example of an astroturfing group that duped genuine employees of Walmart into thinking that it was their best representative for those issues,” Professor Angus told the inquiry.
More from The Klaxon on Advance:
Jan 15 – Anti-Voice group spreading “whale death” lies
Apr 28 – “Advance” spread ANZAC-eve division
Apr 24 – “Advance” in Indigenous attack rant
July 12 – Jillian Segal and husband funding far-right group “Advance”
June 25 – Howard oversaw $500,000 to “Advance”
Advance ran the “No” campaign opposing the Indigenous Voice to parliament, falsely claiming to be a “grassroots” of movement of “ordinary Aussies”, aggressively railing against the “elite” and so-called “inner-city woke”.
In fact, Advance is a vested interests lobby group bankrolled by a handful of mega-rich individuals, many with deep ties to fossil fuels.
“Advance is a vested interests lobby group bankrolled by a handful of mega-rich individuals, many with deep ties to fossil fuels”
The disclosed donors to Advance in the 2022-23 financial year, the full year before the Voice referendum, boiled down to just ten entities — all with personal fortunes of $40 million or more.
Internationally, Indigenous rights have been one of the biggest impediments to aggressive fossil fuels expansion.
Advance’s aggressive campaign of anti-Voice disinformation corresponded with a collapse in public support for the proposal. Advance has repeatedly publicly claimed “victory” for its defeat.
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The bankrollers. Source: AEC/Various. Graphic: The Klaxon
Professor Angus said that under the model, vested interest groups “present themselves” as a “genuine grassroots initiative” in order to “dupe” or gather “genuine grassroots involvement” — which they then pointed to as “evidence” of their legitimacy.
Advance had made a submission to the inquiry, in which it had made “big of an idea of their actual grassroots involvement”, Professor Angus said.
“This is something we see in astroturfing groups particularly.
“They can actually dupe or gather other genuine grassroots involvement unwittingly through some of their activities,” he said.
“This is something we see in astroturfing groups particularly” — Professor Angus
“Advance” was one of the biggest spreaders of fossil fuels propaganda ahead of the May federal election. Source: The Klaxon
Advance was one of the biggest spreaders of fossil fuels propaganda ahead of the federal election, injecting “highly polarising, misleading claims” about “renewables, nuclear and fossil gas” into the national debate before the May poll, the study found.
Professor Angus said a key problem was Australian laws allowed vested interests to easily hide money flows, which in many cases made it impossible to follow the money.
“Because of the disclosure requirements, it makes it very easy to hide money and wash it through multiple front organisations, trusts and other kinds of organisations,” he told the inquiry.
“(The law) makes it very easy to hide money and wash it through multiple front organisations” — Professor Angus
An “Advance” billboard near Newcastle, NSW. Photo: Anthony Klan/The Klaxon
Professor Angus said astroturfing long existed — in the past it had been alcohol and tobacco, now it was climate disinformation — but it had been supercharged by social media.
In particular, via the “micro-targeting” of ads through social media, mainly Meta and Google.
There was almost zero meaningful transparency over the practice as there were no laws in Australia — unlike the EU — requiring the social media giants to make the information available.
This was despite Meta, for example, being able to make the information available by simply “flicking of a switch”, Professor Angus said.
“Astroturfing in climate and energy debates is not the work of fringe actors” — ARC study
The study found that “Astroturfing in climate and energy debates” was “not the work of fringe actors”.
“It is a systematic strategy of mainstream political and corporate players,” the study found.
“Without urgent reforms in transparency, disclosure, and truth-in-advertising, these practices will continue to warp Australia’s climate and energy policy debates at a time when evidence-based decision making is most critical.”
Australia is under threat from bad actors.
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Anthony Klan
Editor, The Klaxon
