Sources and methodology
Last reviewed: 8 October 2026
Two layers of content
The site combines an automated official-source monitoring system with manually structured explanatory pages. The automated layer is designed to discover eligible statements from configured political sources and preserve a direct provenance trail. The explainer layer is separate: it adds original educational context about Parliament, elections, government and public policy.
Keeping these layers distinct helps readers understand when they are viewing a source record and when they are reading our own explanatory work.
Official-source records
For the automated news feed, configured sources are official political party or institutional websites. The system records the source name, original URL, publication information available to it and a stored article record. Every published source record provides a direct link back to the original item where available.
An official source is authoritative for what that organisation published. It is not automatically independent evidence that every political claim inside the publication is correct.
Explainer sources
For civic and institutional explainers we prioritise the Australian Parliament, Parliamentary Education Office, Australian Electoral Commission, Federal Register of Legislation, Reserve Bank of Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics and relevant Commonwealth departments and agencies. We use these sources to describe formal processes, legal structures, official statistics and current administrative guidance.
For topics that can change over time, the explainer points readers to the authoritative page so they can verify the latest detail.
What we do not do
We do not copy whole external articles into our explainer library. We do not disguise party material as independent reporting. We do not use a large number of near-duplicate pages simply to target search terms. We do not publish invented quotations or unsupported factual claims.
The goal is to add useful context that a reader would not get from a list of outbound links alone.
Review and maintenance
Our reference pages include an updated date. Pages are reviewed when the underlying process changes, when an authoritative source is updated, or when a material correction is required. A current official source should take priority if it conflicts with an older description on this site.
We also monitor navigation, broken links and page usability because useful content must remain accessible to readers as well as accurate.
Questions about this page? Contact AU Political News.