TLDR
GetUp posted an AI video with its incoming CEO Dan Ilic transformed into three federal politicians who never appeared, to demand a ban on fabricated political footage. Political material must say who authorised it, but not whether its imagery was made with AI. Over 17,300 people have signed the petition toward a 25,000-signature target.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The gap the ad exposed
GetUp posted a video on Instagram in which its incoming CEO, Dan Ilic, uses AI to turn himself into Communications Minister Anika Wells, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.[1] The AI Wells is shown dancing and "funding the ABC", and Albanese's South Sydney Rabbitohs jersey is swapped for a Brisbane Broncos one.[1] Wells' office confirmed to Mumbrella that the minister did not appear in the video, which GetUp made to show how easily AI can manipulate political imagery.[1]
Ilic said: "AI is now so powerful, it can make unbelievable things believable and accelerate deception to an industrial scale."[1] GetUp's petition asks for two things: a ban on political ads featuring life-like AI depictions of people or events that never existed, and disclosure of AI-generated political content.[1] Its pitch is short: "Parties can say what they like and argue as hard as they want. They just can't fake the footage."[1]
What the rules cover now
Political material has to say who authorised it, but nothing requires it to say whether its imagery was made with AI.[1] QUT digital communication professor Daniel Angus has called the regulation "woefully inadequate", and wants South Australia's truth-in-political-advertising regime expanded and strengthened nationally.[2]
Victoria shows what that gap looks like in a live campaign. In August, the right-leaning group Fix Victoria ran AI-generated ads, estimated to have cost up to $100,000 to publish, including one of a man in a balaclava firebombing a petrol station.[2] A left-leaning group, Better Victoria, is running AI-generated ads in support of the Labor government, and Victorians vote in November.[2]
Not all of it comes from local campaigners. Research group Reset Tech tracked more than 200 Facebook pages impersonating Australian political figures, including Albanese and Hanson, over about eight months, and linked the network to an influencer business in Sri Lanka.[3] Only one in three of the posts carried an AI label.[3] Meta said it was reviewing the pages.[3]
What happens next
GetUp's campaign lands ahead of a parliamentary committee's final report on the 2025 federal election, due in November.[1] The petition had more than 17,300 of its 25,000 target signatures when Mumbrella reported the campaign.[1] If a disclosure rule does pass, agencies that make political ads would have to flag AI-generated footage the way they now carry an authorisation line.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What does GetUp's petition actually ask for?
Is there currently any law against AI-generated political ads in Australia?
Has AI political advertising already been used in Australia?
Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
