Australians must dissect what is being said | Ray's Reasoning

So, it is high time to turn my attention to one aspect of Morrison's leadership that everyone needs to know about.

I'm referring to his understanding of the truth. It's shaky, to put it politely.

Or I could be as candid as many others in the media are, which is to refer to his lies.

I'm referring to those newspapers that produce genuine investigative journalism.

They have found lies by the bucket full.

Today, I'll focus on what Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at the Australia Institute, wrote in The Saturday Paper, as his topic was "Morrison's economic lies".

Given the recently announced budget, today I'll focus on this particular twisting of the facts, as the PM's election campaign strategy will focus in large part on the government's sound economic management.

Is Morrison's claim true?

Hardly, because "Scott Morrison lies about the economy all the time. He can't help himself. He tells big lies about transitioning away from fossil fuels and small lies about the role of his office in the way grants are directed to marginal seats", Denniss wrote.

Morrison also tells strategic lies about the union movement engaging in "a campaign of extortion" to prevent medical supplies making it to Australia and he tells dumb lies about electric vehicles ruining weekends and even dumber ones denying he said that.

Now what all his economic lies have in common is that they always serve the interests of his political friends and undermine the legitimacy of his foes. They are carefully selected to help depict what he wants to do as being "good for the economy" and anything he opposes as "destroying jobs" and "burdening future generations".

While the Coalition likes to argue that "you can't tax your way to prosperity", countries such as Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden do just that and are among the wealthiest countries in the world. They are also among the happiest and healthiest countries.

Similarly, for years, Australians have been told that subsidies for private schools "take pressure" off the public school budget. But Finland, which is widely regarded as having the best schools in the world, has no private schools and spends less per person on education than we do.

Imagine if every three years, Australians were asked whether they would prefer more money to be spent on aged care and more tax collected from foreign oil companies, or if they wanted less money spent on aged care and less tax collected from foreign oil companies.

And yet successive Coalition governments have not only cut the tax bill for the oil and gas industry, but handed them billions in subsidies as well.

Despite the Coalition spending $100 million to hold a royal commission into aged care, and despite that royal commission recommending a big increase in funding for aged care, the Morrison government chose to ignore the advice it commissioned.

And here's the brutal truth.

Whenever you hear Scott Morrison, or any politician, say that we can't afford something, what they really mean is that they just don't want to do it.

Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, and while we can afford to do anything we want, we can't afford to do everything we want. The biggest lie of all is that our votes don't matter because there are no big choices left for governments to make. Don't believe it for a second.

In case readers are thinking, "Oh yes, but all politicians lie", the truth is that they don't.

A recent survey of the trustworthiness of Australian politicians by Roy Morgan research was released last week and published in The New Daily showed that Scott Morrison is the nation's least trustworthy politician.

So, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the nation's most distrusted, with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in second and Defence Minister Peter Dutton rounding out the 'winner's' circle.

Labor, by contrast, dominated the most trusted list.

South Australian Senator Penny Wong came in first.

Party leader Anthony Albanese is now in second place. Also on the 'most trusted' list was Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt.