This week's column follows on from last week, when I wrote what had been described in the media as Scott Morrison's "economic lies". This week I will analyse what Crikey and other newspapers refer to as his other "lies".
My starting points are two very recent events. The first concerns Morrison's preselection for the seat of Cook in 2007, during which it is alleged by contender Michael Towke and others that Morrison's campaign against Towke was racist by claiming he was unelectable due to his Lebanese background and rumoured Muslim faith.
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This is reported in newspapers as different as The Saturday Paper and the Sydney Morning Herald, which wrote, "Morrison accused of racism in bid for seat".
Recently Towke said, "I think it's pretty obvious he is. He's got form on that. Just ask Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Emmanuel Macron and Barnaby Joyce have called him out as a compulsive liar".
Morrison denies these allegations, but several statutory declarations and Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells valedictory speech in the Senate last week all attest that Morrison lied on this issue.
So, it is high time for Morrison to jettison one of his most egregious lies, which is that we are meeting our 2030 targets "at a canter".
It is also not the first time Mr Morrison has been forced to categorically deny accounts that he had sought to seek advantage from bringing race into politics, as The New Daily reports. Former Liberal candidate Irfan Yusuf said that Mr Morrison, while the boss of the NSW Liberals in 2001, had revealed a plan to run a "heavy anti-refugee campaign (that) would destroy Pauline Hanson by stealing her policies". Mr Morrison denied the exchange.
A decade later, it was reported that Mr Morrison, then opposition immigration spokesman, had suggested before shadow cabinet that the Coalition appeal to voter concern about "Muslim immigration". He has also denied this report.
The other incident concerns the resignation of Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston for alleged misconduct. Hillsong is a Pentecostal church, as is Morrison's own church. He was quick to assert that he hadn't been to a Hillsong church for many years, but the evidence shows him on a Hillsong church stage with Houston shortly after his 2019 election victory. Another 'lie'.
I had originally intended to make the major part of today's column an analysis of Morrison's fibs throughout the outgoing parliamentary term.
It would have been based on the log Crikey has been keeping, which amounts to 50 incidents, ranging from tennis player Novak Djokovic through to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins to the French President.
However, my plan was gazumped by the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, given that The New Daily headline read "'They are lying': UN chief attacks Australia's climate approach as IPCC report released".
"They", of course, applies to the current Australian government, but particularly to its leader, Scott Morrison. This is such a topical issue that it deserves expansion in my remaining column inches.
Let's see what the report had to say. It sets out viable, financially sound options to keep the 1.5C goal alive, with Mr Guterres saying the pace of transition to renewables needs to triple.
But "We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit agreed in Paris. Some government and business leaders are saying one thing - but doing another. Simply put, they are lying," he said. Rather than reduce emissions by 2030, we are on track to increase them by 14 per cent because of a "litany of broken promises" and a "file of shame" that's put us "firmly on track towards an unliveable world".
The time to act is "now or never", Guardian Australia wrote.
It will require big efforts from governments, businesses, and people worldwide. It recommends that coal must be phased out completely, methane emissions must be slashed by a third, we need six times the amount of low-carbon investment, and sectors from energy to transport to buildings to food must change dramatically and rapidly.
So, it is high time for Morrison to jettison one of his most egregious lies, which is that we are meeting our 2030 targets "at a canter". We aren't meeting them at all, and those targets are so low as to be useless. What we need is a plan to realistically meet the Greens' target of a 75 per cent reduction by 2030.
