In the lead up to the 2025 federal election, seemingly out of nowhere, groups with names that suggested they were formed by community members with a shared cause began popping up.
They were not what they appeared to be.
What on the surface seemed to be grassroots movements were, in fact, a shield behind which big business - including the fossil fuel industry - could attempt to influence the national debate.
They included “Mums for Nuclear”, “Australians for Natural Gas” and “Australians for Prosperity” are just a few examples.
The groups: According QUT Professor Daniel Angus' submission to the Senate inquiry looking into climate change and energy misinformation, which was highlighted in the final report, Meta’s ad data shows Mums for Nuclear were particularly active during the 2025 federal election.
The group spent between $49,000 and $61,500 on Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns during the election. The exact spend is unavailable, however it’s known that the outlay resulted in more than 1.2 million impressions, despite Mums for Nuclear having fewer than 600 social media followers in total.
QUT’s Professor Daniel Angus said this was an indicator the group wasn’t what it seemed. He said Australians for Natural Gas presented itself as a community-led campaign of everyday Australians. However, it was later revealed to have been set up by gas company Tamboran, and its ads were authorised by the Coalition's internal pollster.
With Australians for Prosperity, AEC disclosures reveal that it received over $3.6 million from Coal Australia, the nation's peak coal lobby group.
Angus said there isn't anything stopping big corporations or industry bodies from creating their own groups that might appear as grassroots movements but are, in reality, completely artificial. This is called astroturfing.
"The difference here is that we're talking about deep pockets from industry that stand to gain financially from a continuing status quo around an inaction on climate change. And that is a very, very different thing to a bunch of very ordinary people banding together and coming up with their own grassroots campaign,” he said.
Can anything be done about fake community groups? Currently in Australia, if a corporation lies about how environmentally friendly it is - known as greenwashing - it is considered false advertising and illegal.
The same can't be said for political parties or third party groups.
Angus wants to see this loophole closed. One way this could be done is by giving consumer watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission powers to take down misleading advertisements, whether they be from political parties, astroturfing operators or genuine community groups.
"It's weird to me that we've got perhaps stronger protections in a commercial setting than what we do for strengthening and safeguarding our democracy. That the ways in which we vote for and the people who eventually make the rules are held to a lesser standard than those that sell us our furniture and our underwear."
Angus and senators David Pocock and Andrew McLachlan believe it's time to legislate “truth in political advertising” laws in an attempt to stop the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
"They can still present their policy platform,” Angus said. “There's been no real negative evidence that there are candidates that aren't able to put their policy positions forward. But what we have seen is that there's less of that muckraking and misinformation out there.”
Watch the full interview below: