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This picture, with a purported quote attributed to Australian Member of Parliamenet, Tanya Plibersek, has been posted on Facebook by the "Patriots Defence League Australia":

"ISIS is not a terrorist organisation. It is a sovereign group fighting for freedom" - maiden speech 2002

The attribution to Tanya Plibersek's 2002 maiden speech is trivially inaccurate, since her maiden speech was in 1998, and doesn't mention any of the keywords "ISIS", "terrorist", or "sovereign" (although it does mention 'freedom', once, in the context of "freedom from victimisation" related to the end of the Great Depression). But is there any evidence that she has said anything on record to this effect?

Andrew Grimm
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lvc
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    2002 seems unlikely since ISIS (or a similar Arabic name) was announced in 2013, while its predecessor ISI was announced in 2006. In 2002 she may have been opposing the then expected invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which took place in 2003. – Henry Jun 01 '16 at 07:41
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    You have already shown that the claim is false. It seems impossible to prove that she never said it. What evidence will it take to satisfy you that she never said it? – Oddthinking Jun 01 '16 at 08:57
  • For me "sovereign group fighting for freedom" returns no results in Google. – Oddthinking Jun 01 '16 at 08:58
  • @Oddthinking I show something that could be argued away as a 'technicality', I'm wondering if there's anything more conclusive. In general, I would look for one of: a) evidence that it was actually said by someone else, b) evidence that it has been falsely (or questionably) attributed to someone else, or c) a notable lack of evidence that would be expected if it had been said by anyone this (locally) prominent, at all, ever (such as news articles, or Hansard transcripts if it was said in Parliament). I'm ashamed I didn't think to Google the phrase, but your empty result seems quite strong. – lvc Jun 01 '16 at 09:12
  • Does anyone know which website adds the "QuotePic" watercolour in the bottom right hand corner? – Andrew Grimm Jun 01 '16 at 10:36
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    @AndrewGrimm it appears to be related to [this iPhone app](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quotepic-quote-maker-text/id1069282555?mt=8), rather than being an author attribution. – lvc Jun 01 '16 at 10:43
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    Here's [an example speech by her about Iraq from 2002](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/chamber/hansardr/2002-09-17/0075/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf). Contains nothing like this alleged quote. Even leaving aside that there was no such organisation called ISIS in 2002, a comment like this from her would have been very unlikely in 2002 when groups like the one that would go on to become ISIS were being touted by Plibersek's political *opponents* as the 'opposition' to Saddam Hussein, and people like Plibersek were speaking out *against* interventions to topple Hussein. – user56reinstatemonica8 Jun 01 '16 at 11:27
  • I suggest editing to remove the vague 'did she say anything like this', and answering the actual claim with the (admittedly trivial) facts. 'Did she say anything like this' is too vague to be answered. – DJClayworth Jun 01 '16 at 14:32
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    The claim is a really low quality forgery, but remember this isn't the fault of the OP (who did a reasonable amount of research before asking the question). It'd be kind of nice to know whether it was a real quote wrongfully mis attributed to her, or whether it was entirely made up. – Andrew Grimm Jun 01 '16 at 21:15
  • @AndrewGrimm By 'real quote' you mean 'something that someone once said'? Obviously someone, somewhere, sometime, has said those words or something very like them. – DJClayworth Jun 02 '16 at 13:09

1 Answers1

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The claim in the picture is completely and utterly wrong for a number of reasons.

  • Tanya Pilbersek's maiden speech was in 1998, not 2002.
  • It does not mention the words ISIS or terrorist, or anything related.
  • ISIS did not even exist in 2002 (or 1998)

The question "has [she] said anything on record to this effect?" is too vague to answer, and even considering it gives unwarranted credibility to someone making stuff up and attaching it to a picture. The burden of evidence is clearly on anyone claiming she has said things like this to at least give a plausible date.

Actual plausible claims with dates attached can still be investigated.

DJClayworth
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    Concur. By entertaining the claim we're effectively signal-boosting it on google, because the Stack Exchange network has a pretty high (and deserved) reputation for good signal-to-noise ratio, and thereby increasing its credibility when it clearly has none. – Shadur Jun 02 '16 at 07:26