Taxation and the economy featured prominently in the second leaders' debate of the 2019 federal election, held this time in Brisbane.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also clashed over climate change and health, among other things.

RMIT ABC Fact Check has previously examined some of the key issues touched on by both leaders. This is what we found.

Negative gearing and capital gains

Taxable income is a poor indicator of household wealth. ( ABC News )

The debate involved clashes between the leaders in relation to Labor's plans to curb capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing.

Labor is promising to reduce the discount on capital gains so that 75 per cent of a capital gain on most asset sales will be subject to tax. (It is currently 50 per cent.)

Labor would also restrict negative gearing of property to new houses from January 1, 2020.

The Morrison Government claims the policies would not only harm the economy, but also taxpayers on low-to-middle incomes such as teachers, nurses and police.

In fact checks published in February and November, we found such claims to be misleading — mainly because taxable income is a poor indicator of household wealth.

Social media

Despite the promises of companies such as Facebook, using technology to take down content automatically is still out of reach. ( Supplied )

On the issue of social media responsibility, Mr Shorten said the big platforms should be more accountable for published content.

In the wake of the Christchurch massacre, Fact Check looked at a claim by Mr Morrison that social media companies could screen hate content with algorithms.

We found this was "wishful thinking".

In fact, the big platforms already use algorithms to find hate content and the people who share it — but the approach has its limits.

Experts said using technology to take down content automatically was still out of reach, despite the promises of companies such as Facebook.

Dividend imputation

An elderly man watches the share market prices at the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney on August 5, 2011. ( AAP: Tracey Nearmy, file photo )

The issue of refunds for franking credits again emerged as a key point of difference between Labor and the Coalition.

During the second leaders' debate, Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested Labor's controversial plan to raise more than $5 billion a year by ending refunds for excess franking credits was unfair to people on to modest incomes, particularly those in retirement.

In response, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the policy providing cash refunds for franking credits for people who paid no tax, introduced by the Howard government in 2001, represented an unsustainable "gift".

Fact Check has already looked into Coalition claims that the policy would hit some of the lowest-paid Australians.

We found such claims misleading, largely because they rely on the notion that people claiming franking cash refunds for excessive franking credits have low taxable incomes.

Among other things, taxable income does not include the largest source of income for many retirees: superannuation.

Apprenticeships and traineeships

There has been an overall 45 per cent drop in apprenticeships and traineeships since 2013. ( ABC supplied )

Bill Shorten mentioned the decline in apprenticeships and traineeships, as he did in the first leaders' debate.

"We've seen the number of apprenticeships and traineeships drop radically under the current government," he said.

It's notable that Mr Shorten has subtly changed his language since Fact Check published its findings earlier this week on a related claim, which was deemed misleading.

That is because he used overall numbers for the decline in apprenticeships and traineeships while referring to a decline in apprenticeships only.

The two types of training programs are different: apprenticeships relate to traditional trades, while traineeships typically relate to the services sector.

In each of the debates, Mr Shorten correctly stated that apprenticeships and traineeships had both declined since the Coalition took office.

There has been an overall 45 per cent drop in apprenticeships and traineeships since 2013, driven mostly by a slump in traineeships (down 66 per cent) but also including a fall in apprenticeships (down 18 per cent).

Health



Bill Shorten again correctly claimed that GP out-of-pocket costs have risen 20 per cent under the Coalition, which is actually an understatement.

A recent Fact Check of a similar claim from Labor's Kristina Keneally found that GP costs had risen 28 per cent since Labor was last in government.

Carbon emissions

Soaring power prices, the states' adoption of renewable energy and the closure of coal-fired power stations have played a part in Australia meeting its Kyoto 2020 target. ( Walter/flickr.com/All Creative Commons )

Mr Morrison again claimed that the Coalition inherited — and turned around — a "700 million tonne" emissions deficit from Labor when it took office in 2013.

Fact Check examined the claim earlier in the year and deemed it to be "misleading".

The so-called "deficit" cited by Mr Morrison was taken from a 2012 forecast of the greenhouse gas reductions needed to hit Australia's 2020 target.

Shortly after the Coalition won the election, it became apparent that emissions under Labor's carbon tax had been lower than expected.

The department, for the first time, also factored in a significant "carryover" from the overachievement of the first Kyoto period.

Soaring power prices, the states' adoption of renewable energy and the closure of coal-fired power stations also played a part; Coalition policies have only played a relatively minor role.

On the other side of the divide, Bill Shorten's claim that carbon emissions are going up under the current government is broadly correct.

In December, Fact Check found emissions had been trending up since 2014, which coincided with the Abbott government's ditching of the carbon tax.

The latest data shows emissions continuing to rise, growing by 0.9 per cent in the year to September 2018, though Australia is still on track to meet its Kyoto 2020 target.

Part of Labor's plan to cut emissions is through the uptake of electric vehicles.

Electric vehicle sales make up just 0.2 per cent of new car sales — one of the lowest rates in the OECD — and Labor wants to increase that to 50 per cent by 2030.

Wage growth

The minimum wage under the Coalition has grown at a faster rate than inflation and the average wage. ( Anne Zahalka, Parliament House Art Collection, Department of Parliamentary Services )

Bill Shorten addressed the issue of wages when he suggested that, unlike corporate profits — which had increased by 39 per cent — wages had stagnated, having only gone up five to six per cent under this Government.

Fact Check has previously examined movements in real wages showing that they have indeed grown sluggishly over the past decade.

More recently, Fact Check looked into a claim made by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg that the minimum wage under the Coalition was growing at a faster rate than inflation and the average wage, whereas under Labor, the minimum wage went backwards.

We found the Treasurer’s claim was a fair call, with some caveats.

The real minimum wage rose during Labor's term as a whole, although it did fall by 2.3 per cent in 2009-10 following the onset of the global financial crisis.