Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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 doesn't care. He is on the side of neither truth nor falsehood. He peddles hokum, balderdash, humbug, claptrap.

On the vaccine rollout, the Prime Minister said it wasn't a race, then falsely claimed 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 a harassment claim was underway. After incorrectly characterising Australia's policy towards Taiwan as 'one country, two systems', he pretended he'd 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 he has never told a lie in office.

The Prime Minister doesn't care about the truth. His messaging strategy is like a car thief flicking random doorhandles till he finds one that opens. He slings BS everywhere, hoping some sticks.