One Nation leader Pauline Hanson delivered a stinging critique on YouTube on Tuesday of an Australian government program to bring 10,000 Africans to Australia on fully funded scholarships, only it turned out it was fake news.
In the video, Hanson says prime minister Malcolm Turnbull should "take the cheque book off" foreign minister Julie Bishop, and wonders why the scholarships are not being offered in Australia.
The whole video is based on a Facebook share from Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi. You may remember her from the time she became a meme.
The Kenyan-born Gichuhi shared a story on Facebook about 10,000 scholarships, linking to a website "approvedinfo.info".
The headline in the news site claims 10,000 scholarships are available, but the story later says "up to 1,000" scholarships are on offer.
There is a $320 million dollar program called Australia Awards which offers scholarships to students around the world, including return airfare, health cover, living expenses up to $30,000 per year, and support. Those who are granted the award need to leave Australia within two years of finishing their scholarship or be found liable for the debt of the scholarship.
The story then landed on The Australian's website, noting that Hanson had "slammed a scholarship program for up to 10,000 African students".
Then on Wednesday, Gichuhi said that the link her office had originally shared was "fake news".
The Office of Senator Lucy Gichuhi has retracted Monday's post on 10,000 scholarships for African students. Despite the best efforts in checking the information, the office has been a victim of fake news. We apologise for any inconvenience. #auspol https://t.co/pDHh7GaXRc
But Hanson doubled down, insisting the program was real, and questioning why Gichuhi had called it fake news.
Government Senator & Chair of the Education & Employment Legislation Committee Lucy Gichuhi has called the Gov's $320 MILLION DOLLAR foreign student scholarship giveaway #FAKENEWS! Will @TurnbullMalcolm & @JulieBishopMP please explain? -PH #auspol LINK: https://t.co/h9AkSQqumT https://t.co/AGNVbuGSnJ
On 2GB radio Hanson said she had asked DFAT about the program, and believed it to be real.
"Is this fake news or fair dinkum? I think it is fair dinkum," she said.
Is it "fair dinkum"? Yes and no.
BuzzFeed News sought comment from DFAT, and in a statement, foreign minister Julie Bishop revealed that the program has been around since 2011, but in the seven years the program has been running, in total, 4,800 awards have been given to people from African countries.
The program itself is only offering 4,000 awards in total this year for students in more than 40 countries Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Nearly 500 of those given out this year will go to people in 22 African countries, at a cost of $31.8 million.
"The Australia Awards assist future relations including investment, job creation and wealth for Australia, our people and the country of our scholars," Bishop said.
"The scholarships support and showcase the Australian education sector in a globally competitive market, providing a platform to strengthen links between students, academics, researchers and institutions."
So, to sum up: the linked article has fake information, but the program is real. And all of this mess could have been avoided if Gichuhi's or Hanson's office had called up DFAT before posting on Facebook or filming YouTube videos.
Any questions?
maybe the year's best reaction clip from SA senator Lucy Gichuhi