Politics

Scott Morrison Claims He’s Never Lied In Public Life And That’s Actually Not The Truth, Ellen

A quick fact check begs to differ, Scotty.

by Lavender Baj  12 November 2021
scott morrison lie

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has spectacularly claimed he has never told a lie in public life, and no sir, we have the receipts.

In an interview with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell on Friday morning, Morrison was asked if he has ever told a lie in public life, to which he replied: “I don’t believe I have, no. No.”

Related
The Ernie Awards For Sexism In 2021 Have Been Announced And Congrats To ScoMo

The loaded question comes after French President Emmanuel Macron accused Morrison of lying to him over the AUKUS submarine deal that essentially nuked our relationship with France. However, that’s not the only time the PM has been accused of lying recently.

Even former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull went so far as to claim Morrison has lied to him multiple times. “He’s lied to me on many occasions,” Turnbull told reporters at COP26. “Scott has always had a reputation for telling lies.”

“But when you do that, as the leader of the nation, internationally, it reflects on us all…deceiving people is bad wherever you do it, but when you do it at an international level, it has much graver ramifications.”

So, in an attempt to fact-check Morrison’s claim, let’s revisit some of his most infamous lies in recent years.

EVs Will End The Weekend

Perhaps the most recent example of Morrison blatantly lying is evident in his new stance on electric vehicles. On Tuesday, Morrison claimed that it was a “Labor lie” that he had campaigned against electric vehicles back in 2019.

“I was against Bill Shorten’s mandate policy, trying to tell people what to do with their lives, what cars they were supposed to drive,” he said, referencing another false claim that Bill Shorten was trying to mandate EVs.

He added that EVs “have a role to play” and that he has “no problem” with them. But that’s not what he said back in 2019.

“It’s not going to tow your trailer. It’s not going to tow your boat. It’s not going to get you out to your favourite camping spot with your family,” he said at the time, adding that Australians prefer cars “that have a bit of a grunt, have a bit of power.”

Europe Is The Reason Our Vaccine Rollout Was So Slow

Back in April, Morrison asserted that the European Union had blocked shipments of 3.1 million doses of AstraZeneca from going to Australia, blaming this as the reason for our slow vaccine rollout.

In a press conference at the time, Morrison used this as a reason why we had only administered 855,000 vaccines — far less than the four million target. “They’ve blocked 3.1m shots so far … we haven’t given up hope but we’ve stopped counting them in our expected supplies,” an Australian Government source to Reuters following his claim.

However, this was quickly refuted by the EU, with a European Commission spokesperson calling bullshit on the claim. “We cannot confirm any new decision to block vaccine exports to Australia or to any other country,” the spokesperson said in a press conference at the time.

Shanghai Sam

Back in 2019, Morrison denied calling Sam Dastyari “Shanghai Sam” in relation to the former senator’s personal ties with Chinese donors, which resulted in his resignation in 2017.

“Prime Minister why was it racist to question Gladys Liu’s connections to China but it wasn’t racist to call Sam Dastyari ‘Shanghai Sam’?” the reporter asked.

Morrison denied using the words “racist” or “Shanghai Sam”, despite the fact that a video on his own Facebook page — entitled Shanghai Sam — is still live today (November 12, 2021). There’s also a tweet that is still live today.

It’s worth noting that Morrison eventually back-pedalled on the lie, asserting that he simply misunderstood the question.

“This is just another one of the silly little games that comes out of Canberra……I was referring to the word racist I heard twice in the question,” Morrison told Ben Fordham.

“I was referring to the word racist that I heard twice in the question and I’ve got to say my focus was on the bushfires,” Morrison said. “We were standing in the middle of an oval and your hearing doesn’t always pick up the precise wording of all the questions that comes, that’s not uncommon in circumstances like that.”

These are just a handful of some of the clearest examples of Morrison lying while in public life, but by no means is this list exhaustive. There are countless examples of times he likely misled the public or twisted the truth, but these are just some of the times he was actually caught out on it.