HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 22 NOVEMBER 2021
In his book, “On BS”, Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt distinguished between three kinds of people. The honest care that their statements are true. The liars care that theirs are false. The BS artist does not care. He is neither on the side of truth or falsehood. He peddles hokum, balderdash, humbug, claptrap.
On the vaccine roll out, the Prime Minister said it wasn’t a race, then falsely claimed that he’d been talking about vaccine regulation. After being accused of mendacity by Macron, he wrongly accused journalists of taking selfies with the French leader, then falsely pretended the criticism was an attack on Australia.
When he didn’t like a question from a Sky News journalist, he falsely smeared Sky News, saying that a harassment claim was underway. After incorrectly characterising Australia’s policy towards Taiwan as “one country, two systems”, he pretended he had been talking about Hong Kong.
He ridiculed electric vehicles, then claimed he hadn’t. He claimed Labor had an electric vehicle mandate, which we didn’t. He denied saying “Shanghai Sam”, when he had. To top it off, he said this month that he has never told a lie in public office.
The Prime Minister doesn’t care about the truth. His messaging strategy is like a car thief flicking random door handles until he finds one that’s open. He slings BS everywhere, hoping some sticks.
ENDS
Authorised by Paul Erickson, ALP, Canberra.