The ACT Party has defended a Facebook image comparing publicly funded medicines in Australia and New Zealand after a statistics professor said it was "visually misleading."

The image, posted on ACT's Facebook page, shows two stacks of pills. Australia's 215 publicly funded medicines from 2011 to 2025 are shown as a stack of 10 pills. New Zealand's 86 medicines are shown as a stack of two pills. RNZ

Thomas Lumley, a statistics professor at the University of Auckland, said the image makes the gap look five times larger when the real difference is 2.5 times. He said most people would see it as a chart showing real proportions and called it "visually misleading." RNZ

A press secretary for ACT MP Todd Stephenson said the post was not misleading because it was "a graphic and not a graph." RNZ

RNZ could not check the medicine figures in the ACT post. ACT did not say where the numbers came from. RNZ

The post is part of a wider ACT campaign on medicine funding. On 28 July, ACT leader David Seymour posted a video saying ACT would make medicines a priority and close the gap with Australia. The same day, ACT MP Todd Stephenson posted an image of a pharmacy where every medicine on the shelves is one New Zealand patients cannot get through public funding. Facebook Facebook

RNZ has reported that New Zealand funded 28 modern medicines from 2012 to 2017, compared with Australia's 90 over the same period. RNZ

ACT wants to close the gap by increasing the share of the health budget that goes to Pharmac, the agency that decides which medicines are publicly funded, by one percent per year. RNZ

The argument over the image raises a question that comes up often in New Zealand politics: where is the line between making a point and misrepresenting the facts, and can anyone regulate what political parties post on social media?

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the body that handles complaints about ads. It treats political ads differently from regular ads, allowing room for opinion as long as it is clearly separated from fact. RNZ

There is a past example. In 2019, Dylan Reeve, who wrote a book on conspiracy theories in Aotearoa, complained to the ASA about a National Party ad on fuel prices that used a bar chart drawn to the wrong scale. The ASA also got 72 complaints about National's "Triple your taxes" ads but did not uphold any of them, saying the ads were political opinion. RNZ

The difference ACT is drawing between "a graphic" and "a graph" matters here. Think of it this way: a graph is expected to show accurate proportions, like a bar chart in a news report. A graphic, like an illustration in a campaign poster, is treated as a political opinion piece. The ASA gives political opinion more freedom. But Lumley's point is that most people looking at two pill stacks side by side with numbers attached would read it as a chart showing real proportions, and the ASA's rules do not clearly cover social media posts that are not part of a formal ad campaign.

ACT's website shows what is at stake politically. The party's slogans include "Unlock New Zealand's Potential" and "Party Vote ACT to Lock Labour Out." Leader David Seymour is listed as MP for Epsom and Deputy Prime Minister. Nicole McKee is Deputy Leader and Minister of Courts. The latest news release as of 4 August is titled "ACT drives most business-friendly Government in a generation," written by Seymour. ACT

The medicine funding gap between New Zealand and Australia is a live election issue. What is new here is the specific argument: a party saying an image is advocacy rather than data, while a statistician says most people would read it as a chart and it overstates the numbers by a factor of two.

The broader context is what this means for voters. The ASA's rules give political parties a lot of freedom on social media, and the "Triple your taxes" case suggests that even claims with wrong numbers are unlikely to be upheld if framed as political opinion. But that freedom comes with a cost: academics and fact-checkers can point out the gap between what an image shows and what the numbers actually say. ACT's defence, that the image is a graphic and not a graph, fits within the ASA's framework. Whether voters who see a pill stack and read it as showing real proportions will accept that distinction is another matter.