The problem with lying, even once, is that you are then labeled a liar, in politics as in life.
While this may seem unfair to Premier Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers, it is not surprising.
They lied when they promised not to adjust the third-stage tax cuts before doing just that.
Now they are not believed when they deny plans to tighten negative leverage and capital gains taxes.
We can debate the political value of breaking the promise of third-stage tax cuts, but there is no doubt that they said one thing before doing the opposite.
There is also no doubt about the timing of the somersault. They continued to deny that they were planning to change their minds, even when they had already done so.
That was the moment when a broken promise turned into a total lie.
Perhaps worse than the initial lie, neither Albo nor Chalmers have been willing to admit what they did.
As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “No one lies so boldly as an indignant man.”
An energetic Anthony Albanese on the Today Show Thursday morning
The Prime Minister and Treasurer are an increasingly angry pair as their frustration grows at exposure of their record of dishonesty.
We have heard repeated denials over the past two days from both men that a Labour government will change the rules on negative gearing or capital gains tax.
The denials come in the wake of revelations that the Treasury Department has investigated the impact of such policy changes.
Albo made the morning press rounds this morning and repeatedly said that he will not change his mind on the issue. He respects the Treasury, but will not listen to its suggestions.
As former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
How dare voters not take the Prime Minister and Treasurer at their word this time!
You see, that’s the problem with lying: once you slide down that slippery moral slope, your word no longer means anything.
And lying is becoming easier and easier. Who among us would be so stupid as to trust a liar?
Too many politicians deceive too often, leading voters to become increasingly cynical about the political class and distrustful of what they say and promise.
Those of us who embrace the truth that Albo and Chalmers are now little more than a couple of liars are, according to their partisan defenders, being too harsh when we use the label of liars.
Why? Simply because they don’t like the label? They probably don’t like it any more than voters don’t like being lied to in the first place.
Calling someone a liar is a “big mistake” if there is any ambiguity surrounding the idea. In the case of this couple, there is none.
It is a simple and unedifying fact.
Describing a politician as “careless with the truth” (a slightly more polite way of saying the same thing) can undermine his credibility. And so it should be.
Albo was happy to characterise Scott Morrison that way after a series of examples highlighted how complicated the former prime minister became with his political rhetoric the longer he was in office.
But the current Prime Minister has taken insincerity to a new level and has accepted that deception much faster than ScoMo.
Perhaps Labour won’t make any changes to negative gearing. Perhaps it will, and doing so is a justifiable response to a worsening fiscal environment amid a housing crisis.
Either way, the problem for the Prime Minister and the Treasurer as the election campaign heats up is that it no longer matters what they say or what they do.
Having proven themselves able and willing to deceive the voting public on an increasing number of occasions (with lies, half-truths and misleading rhetoric), nothing they promise to do or not do in the future can be trusted.
Because the word of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer is no longer your guarantee. It is now worthless and certainly cannot be trusted.