PETER VAN ONSELEN: Albo and Jim can get sook as much as they like. The reality is theyve made a devastating mistake that means no-one trusts what comes out of their mouth
The problem with lying - even just once - is that you subsequently get labelled a liar, in politics as in life.
The problem with lying - even just once - is that you subsequently get labelled a liar, in politics as in life.
While this might seem unfair to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers, its hardly surprising.
They lied when they promised not to adjust stage three tax cuts before doing precisely that.
Now they arent being believed when they deny plans to adjust negative gearing and capital gains taxes.
We can debate the policy value in breaking the stage three tax cuts promise, but there is no disputing that they said one thing before doing the opposite.
There is also no disputing the timing of the backflip. They continued to deny they were planning to change their minds - even when they already had.
That was the moment in time that a broken promise morphed into an out and out lie.
Perhaps worse than the initial lie itself, neither Albo nor Chalmers has been willing to admit what they did.
As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.
A feisty Anthony Albanese on the Today Show on Thursday morning
The PM and Treasurer are an increasingly indignant pair as their frustration at having their track record of dishonesty is called out grows.
Weve heard repeated denials in the last two days by both men that a Labor government will change negative gearing or capital gains tax rules.
The denials come in the wake of revelations that the Department of Treasury has looked into the impact of such policy shifts.
Albo did the morning media rounds today repeatedly saying he wont backflip on the issue. He respects the Treasury, but wont be listening to their suggestion.
As former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said: Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
How dare voters not take the PM and Treasurer at their word this time!
You see, thats the problem with lying - once you slide down that moral slippery slope, your word no longer means anything.
And the lying becomes easier and easier. Who amongst us would be stupid enough to trust a liar?
Too many politicians mislead too often, which is why voters are increasingly cynical about the political class. Distrusting of what they say and promise.
Those of us who embrace the truism that Albo and Chalmers are now little more than a pair of liars are, according to their partisan defenders, being too harsh when we use the liar tag.
Why, simply because they dont appreciate the label? They probably dont like it anymore than voters dont appreciate being lied to in the first place.
Calling someone a liar is a big call if there is any ambiguity about the notion. In the case of this pair, there isnt.
Its a simple, unedifying, fact.
Defining a politician as loose with the truth (a slightly more polite way to put saying the same thing) can sap them of credibility. As it should.
Albo was happy to define Scott Morrison that way after a series of examples highlighted how tricky the former PM became with his political rhetoric the longer he was in the job.
But the now PM has taken being loose with the truth to a new level. And hes embraced such deception much quicker than ScoMo ever did.
Maybe Labor really wont make changes to negative gearing. Maybe they will, and doing so is a justifiable policy response to a worsening fiscal environment in the midst of a housing crisis.
Either way, the problem the PM and Treasurer have as the election campaign heats up, is that it no longer matters what they say or what they do.
Having proven themselves capable of, and willing to, deceive the voting public once a growing number of occasions - with lies, half truths and misleading rhetoric - anything they promise to do or not do going forward cant be trusted.
Because the PM and Treasurers word is no longer their bond. Its now worthless and certainly cant be relied on.
