Bending, twisting, stretching the truth on major issues

Casting doubt on Scott Morrison’s integrity was a handy strategy for Anthony Albanese and his team before and during the 2022 election campaign. It deflected attention from Labor’s flimsy agenda. Keen to make the election about character, the then Labor opposition leader and his team regularly threw barbs such as “Scott Morrison’s got an issue with the truth”, the “liar from the shire” and “Scott Morrison is a liar who lies about lying”. Before the election, and after, Mr Albanese described himself as a “straight shooter”, reassuring voters “what you see is what you get’’. Except for when it suits him to be more selective and circumspect.

Controversies this week and last week over important national security and economic issues rekindled memories of Labor’s claims about Mr Morrison stretching, bending and twisting the truth. Peter Dutton accused the Prime Minister of misleading parliament by misrepresenting ASIO boss Mike Burgess about security checks for Gazans. In parliament, the Opposition Leader quizzed Mr Albanese about his claim that Palestinians from the war zone were undergoing ASIO security assessments. Eager to deflect claims that his government was weak on national security, Mr Albanese answered with what he said was a “direct quote” from Mr Burgess’s appearance on the ABC’s Insiders last Sunday. Mr Albanese said: “I will refer to what the ASIO director-general himself has said: ‘If they have been issued with a visa, they’ve gone through the process. They’re referred to my organisation and ASIO does its thing.’ ” While Mr Burgess made it clear that ASIO intervened only when applicants were flagged as potential risks, the Prime Minister’s omission created the impression that every Palestinian given a visa since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel had been approved by the security agency.

It is a significant difference. Amid heightened social division, with a raised terror threat level, attacks on MPs’ offices and more than 800 anti-Semitic attacks in Victoria alone, as the government’s anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal has revealed, there can hardly be a graver allegation against Mr Albanese than that he misled parliament over the issue, as Dennis Shanahan wrote on Friday. Most Australians would abhor the idea of Hamas supporters being admitted to this country.

In an effort to put a better spin on the government’s economic performance, Mr Albanese also got himself tied up in knots by denying what was printed in black and white in the Reserve Bank board’s statement on monetary policy, released on August 6 when the bank’s board announced its decision to keep interest rates on hold. Amid voter concern about living costs and elevated interest rates, the RBA statement warned: “Public demand is forecast to be stronger than previously expected, reflecting recent public spending announcements by federal and state and territory governments.” But when asked two days later about the RBA attributing a worse outlook for inflation to state and federal government spending, Mr Albanese responded: “That’s not what they said.” In an extraordinary claim, Jim Chalmers praised Queensland Premier Steven Miles’s “terrific” government for “thinking outside the square” on cost of living, including the Premier’s absurd promise to spend money on state-owned fuel stations. But on Friday, RBA governor Michele Bullock pointed the finger at state governments for driving a “large chunk” of the surge in public spending when she spoke to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics.

In comments that will be a relief for the government, she said the public spending splurge was “not the main game”. Persistent inflation, Ms Bullock said, was being driven by dwelling costs, rent and the high cost of services, such as insurance. Markets are betting on an interest-rate cut by Christmas, but Ms Bullock, with characteristic frankness, said no reductions were expected this year. As Mr Albanese advised Mr Morrison in August 2021: “True leadership is about stepping up to responsibility.”