for questions about claims based in Australia, or limited to Australia.
Questions tagged [australia]
81 questions
19
votes
4 answers
Is this comparison of wedge tailed eagles and bald eagles accurate?
From https://twitter.com/dannolan/status/665409197685764096 (408 RTs, 495 likes), though another comparison between the two exists in Australian Popular Science
[US flag, picture of American Bald Eagle]
American Bald Eagle
One of the smallest…
Andrew Grimm
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18
votes
1 answer
Were Boundary Streets in Queensland named as boundaries that Indigenous Australians were not allowed to cross?
This Facebook post has been shared over 7000 times:
Do you know the history of the many Boundary Streets around Qld?
It was the boundary of where Indigenous Australians were not allowed to cross after 4pm weekdays/Saturdays and not at all on…
CJ Dennis
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18
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1 answer
Does the Australian government spend more on welfare than on defense?
Is it true that the Australian people spend more on welfare than they do on defense?
This was claimed by Joe Hockey:
Each year, the Government spends more on welfare than we spend on the education of our children, the health of our people or the…
Andy Beattie
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16
votes
2 answers
Do smoking-related deaths save cost to health service?
Australian columnist Miranda Devine recently claimed that smoking-related deaths save cost to the health system:
“Well cigarettes aren’t that bad really when you think about it,”
Devine said.
“It might shorten a couple of years off the end of…
Ergwun
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16
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2 answers
Have 5% of Australian Catholic priests been charged with child sexual abuse offences?
From The Monthly: Letting Catholic priests into Australia was a mistake
There are around 3000 Catholic priests in Australia, plus a few
hundred retirees. Of these, an astonishing one in 20 has been charged
with child sexual abuse offences. And…
Andrew Grimm
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15
votes
0 answers
Does sharing a shower use less water?
From what I found on the Internet, a brief shower is more water efficient than a bath. I was wondering if there is any research about water use with more than one person using a shower? My gut feeling is that two people showering uses around 150%…
Diederik
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15
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1 answer
Was Australian colonisation started as a penal colony?
It seems to be a very wide spread claim that Australia was started as a British penal colony. When I first heard of it as a young kid, I envisioned some crime infested dystopia like in the movie Escape from L.A.
From those claim it seems that the…
SIMEL
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14
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Were there fewer first-home buyers in Australia in 2017 than seventh-home buyers?
An ABC news item today quoted a claim about the Australian property market without any indication that they verified it:
[Queensland] State Housing Minister Mick De Brenni said that last year more Australians bought their seventh home than those…
Oddthinking
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14
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Did unrestricted speed limits lead to fewer deaths in the Northern Territory of Australia?
Drive reports that a section of highway in the Northern Territory has has been switched back and forth between no speed limit, and 130 km/h speed limits over the past decade or so, with some dispute between the politicians about which is safer.
(It…
Oddthinking
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14
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2 answers
The extinction of the thylacine: could some still survive?
(Image comes from Wikimedia Commons)
The last known thylacine died in 1936, and the species was officially moved from 'endangered' to 'extinct' in the 1980s. Since the last living specimen died, there have been well over 3000 reported sightings,…
oosterwal
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14
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2 answers
More stars visible from the Australian outback than anywhere else on earth?
An ad for Vodafone in Cairns airport, Australia, presents as a fact "worth ringing home about" that you can see more stars from the Australian outback than anywhere else on earth.
While the Australian outback would have less light pollution and less…
Andrew Grimm
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13
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2 answers
Is new nuclear power cheap?
A common theme amongst calls for nuclear power in Australian politics is the idea that nuclear power is cheap. For example, the United Australia party (Wikipedia) ran the below full page add making just that claim. There are other examples from the…
user1605665
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11
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1 answer
Do Australian Aboriginal people have low intelligence and sexual control?
Margaret Sanger wrote in What Every Girl Should Know: Sexual Impulses--Part II New York Call 29 December 1912 and also in her 1916 What Every Girl Should Know at page 47 and a 1920 version and in later editions:
It is said a fish as large as a man…
DavePhD
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10
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Do 7 out of 10 Australians support drug testing welfare recipients?
On the Liberal Party of Australia's Facebook feed they posted an image that makes the claim that "7 out of 10 Australians support drug testing welfare recipients".
Is this true? What is it based on? Is it quality data or a selective survey?
Also…
user1605665
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9
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2 answers
Do Australian cyclists need to pay registration fees?
The Facebook page "Meanwhile in Australia" has posted a meme with over 10,000 likes, and about 2,000 shares:
All Australian bike riders will now have to carry photo id and pay rego just like everyone else
Do you agree with the new bicycle…
Oddthinking
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