Voters are the best judge of election lies and should be left to make up their own minds on political advertising, Australia's election watchdog says.
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In recent years, some politicians and advocates have mounted a push for false or misleading ads to be outlawed during election campaigns.
But acting electoral commissioner Jeff Pope says voters are the best regulator of campaign material.
"The voters are the ones that will make up their minds about party worker behaviour and corflutes and how to vote cards," he said.
Mr Pope told a parliamentary hearing into the 2025 federal election in Canberra on Wednesday that Australian Electoral Commission officials did not want to be the "arbiters of truth".
"That would be the start of a spiral," he said.
"We'll be seen to be actually or perceived biased in terms of what we determine to be truthful or not, offensive or not ... that is a very troubling space for the independent and impartial electoral commission to be brought into."
The AEC is responsible for ensuring an authorisation is displayed on all campaign advertising, allowing voters to know who is paying for the ad.
It has no powers to regulate the content of election ads.
But Mr Pope said the AEC was keen to have more power in the social media space to manage the growing rise of influencers in election campaigns.
During the 2025 campaign, the commissioner reviewed 2736 posts on social media and identified 1020 breaches of the electoral act.
The commissioner said it was becoming more challenging to regulate online communications.
He suggested parliament should consider laws giving the AEC greater powers to clamp down on improperly authorised campaign material.
Such powers could include the ability to take down posts which don't carry the proper authorisation.
"We ought to be able to do more in those very, very busy times of pre-poll and polling day ... to address some of these concerns," he said.
Australian Associated Press
