Voters should not fall for Shorten’s pantomime tricks and progressive posturing

Bill Shorten is a seasoned union speaker and his tricks are those of the theatrical clown: the rolling eyes, the smirks of the pantomime performer, the sneer, the asides favoured by vaudevillians. But when it comes to numbers he hasn’t a clue,

Throughout history, politicians have benefited from telling untruths — lies, if you will — and in this election Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is following this grotesque practice with aban­don. That evil monster Adolf Hitler made note of the benefits of the big lie when writing his manifesto Mein Kampf at the outset of his ­political ­career, saying it was wise to use a lie too “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infam­ously”. Clearly, he never met Mr Shorten.

Bill Shorten talking to the media this week. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

On Friday night during a televised citizens’ debate, Mr Shorten was asked what it would cost in jobs and wages to cut our carbon dioxide emissions by 45 per cent — the current Labor policy.

Mr Shorten, adopting his most ­sincere mask from his collection of ­facades, said: “The cost to the taxpayer is practically nil.”

MORE FROM PIERS AKERMAN

DON’T LET BILL SHORTEN WITHIN COO-EE OF THE LODGE

MOB ROAMS THE LANDSCAPE IN THE QUEST FOR OUTRAGE

LEFTIES MAKE ABOUT AS MUCH SENSE AS A GOOSE’S FART

Had almost any other politician made such a hand-on-heart statement there is the possibility that they would have been believed.

But coming from the former national secretary of the AWU, the man who negotiated a deal stripping $400 million in benefits from workers at Cleanevent in return for an unusual arrangement which bolstered the AWU’s numbers and gave the union greater influence within the ALP, the statement is as farcical and as phony as almost all his other utterances.

It is telling Labor now has to roll out its three most recent prime ministers — Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Rudd revisited — in its attempt to lift this prime ministerial candidate from the political sewer where he habitually ­resides.

Labor has rolled out Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd to boost Shorten’s election chances. Picture: Terry Pontikos

Mr Shorten is a seasoned union speaker used to standing on the back of trucks and exhorting the workers to demand more, and many fall for his spiel — unaware that he has sold out union members to bolster his own power base within the ALP.

His tricks are those of the theatrical clown: the rolling eyes, the smirks of the pantomime performer, the sneer, the asides favoured by vaudeville mummers and strollers.

When it comes to numbers he hasn’t a clue. He’s too busy with his heavy sighs, quizzical glances and brow-­wrinkled feigned perplexity.

He can’t dispute the $387 billion costings that will ensure higher and heavier taxes, and he can’t argue the fundamental economic reality that higher taxes reduce investment and drive business abroad.

Like the handful of schoolchildren who have been ­infected with the triffid-like global warming virus, Mr Shorten has the ­enthusiasm of an anti-vaxxer for old-fashioned socialism’s failed economic ideas, and has embraced the so-called “woke” generation’s adoption of gender politics as a defining issue of the ­nation’s “progressive” posturing.

Like many commentators on the left, he attempts to demonise those mature enough to appreciate such values as the family and freedom of speech and ­religion as extremists, members of the “alt-right” exerting an almost mythical influence on the Liberal Party.

The evidence doesn’t stack up for this claim. Both major parties have ­drifted to the left and the shift has damaged their respective bases.

The nation is in safe hands with Scott Morrison. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The Greens, if one were to accept the characterisation of Liberals as influenced by neo-conservatives, are now neo-communists, as are the ACTU and many members of the Labor Party, gauged by their readiness to mandate laws governing the use of everything from renewables in the nation’s automotive fleet to kitchen seasonings best left to chefs. Just last week it was ­revealed Labor will require every ­builder or even home renovator to ­install vehicular charging facilities when work is carried out on the family property — hip-pocket cost inestimable but virtue signalling benefit as great as an appearance with rejected former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on a float in the Mardi Gras.

TV viewers think differently to those who watched the debates live. It may be Mr Shorten’s japes work best with a live audience but don’t transmit to the living room, where his mugging to camera and sniggering delivery is seen as more ­kabuki than debate.

Mr Morrison is now less wooden but he’s no Peter Costello, his predecessor as a surplus-delivering treasurer, and a politician with a quick and self-denigrating wit.

But Mr Morrison’s mastery of detail is in stark contrast to the bloviating ramblings of his snide opponent.

Australia has been strengthened by the Coalition government despite the disastrous interlude overseen by the wrecker Mr Turnbull.

Mr Morrison and his team, including his prime ministerial predecessor Tony Abbott, can take much credit for this.

Mr Shorten sees Australians as a ­nation of victims whom only Labor can help with handouts garnered by taxing those who worked long and hard to save for their retirement.

Mr Morrison is treading an established path to economic and national security. No change should be contemplated.