The rules

We report what official records show. Our sources are court judgments and sentencing remarks, integrity commission and auditor-general reports, tribunal and regulator findings, Hansard, legislation and government data. Every episode lists its sources on its own page.

When a figure is our own calculation from published data, such as a total divided by the population, the episode says so.

When an episode is about a crime, we choose cases where the people at the centre were convicted by a court. Some episodes are about the rules themselves, and name nobody.

We name a person in connection with specific conduct only where a court, tribunal, auditor-general, integrity commission, regulator or parliamentary committee has published a finding about that conduct. News reports alone are never enough. When we report a finding, we use the words of the body that made it.

When a case is still moving, such as an appeal that hasn’t been decided, the episode says so, as at the date it was recorded.

Every fact is checked against its primary source before it is recorded, and every quotation is checked word for word against the document it comes from. If we can’t source a claim, it stays out.

The narration is an AI voice made from the host’s own voice. The pictures are illustrations made for each episode. There is no footage and there are no photographs, and no real person’s face is ever drawn. Each illustration carries one of two labels:

• Reconstruction · From the recordThe thing shown is documented: a courtroom, a document, or an event that a judgment or an official report records.
• Reconstruction · Setting onlyA generic version of a place, there to carry the narration. Nothing specific is claimed about it.

Audit This takes no money from any political party, candidate, government agency or organisation it reports on. It is published under the name The Auditor.

We aim to meet the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics and the Australian Press Council’s Statement of General Principles.

If we get something wrong, we fix it. Email auditthismedia@gmail.com with the episode, the time stamp and what you think is wrong, and a source if you have one. We read every message.

If we find an error, we correct the episode description, note the correction on the episode’s page with the date, and list it in the log below. If the error is significant, we re-edit or remove the passage and say so.

Audit This is produced for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. All content is drawn from, and should be read alongside, the public record: court judgments, sentencing remarks, tribunal and commission findings, auditor-general and regulator reports, and Hansard. It is presented as a matter of public interest and fair comment. Where a matter is described as alleged, under appeal, or otherwise not finally determined, the episode says so. Nothing here should be taken to assert guilt or liability beyond what the cited record establishes.