‘Desperately needed’: readers say dossier of Morrison’s lies and falsehood was long overdue

Our dossier of Scott Morrison’s lies and falsehoods certainly created quite the buzz last week, garnering attention across the country, from citizens, pollies, celebs, you name it. And the feedback from Crikey readers came in droves…

On the dossier

Dr Robbie Lloyd writes: This series is long overdue and desperately needed. Thank you for having the guts to go for the heart of Australia’s current malaise in public life — i.e. being led by a shallow con man, who uses “God” as a smokescreen for pea and thimble trickery to manipulate the population.

Keep on keeping on with your relentless pursuit of the truth, and shining a light into the dark underside of ScoMo’s and the LNP’s undemocratic and dissembling form of “political representation”. The mainstream media have to be held to account as well, for their lazy and sycophantic swallowing of ScoMo’s lies. In fact their partnership in selling the lies most of the time.

Doug Rogers writes: To begin with, congrats on calling out Morrison for his appalling behaviour since he won the PM’s position (although I think he and the LNP in general have been on the nose from Howard onwards). The question that would be uppermost in my mind is why people think they are OK? Are we all so self-centred and “aspirational“ that we are happy to put up with their ongoing theft of taxpayers’ money via the various rorts they continuously come up with, not to mention the subverting of the legal system (Bernard Collaery). Are they the leadership we deserve? Go after the bastards as hard as you can and while you’re at it, put a rocket up Albanese.

Richard Hanlon writes: As a retired journalist, I have been absolutely appalled by the spin and lies constantly pumped out by Scott Morrison. This is a bloke who reaches into biblical quotes to justify his only ambition, which is reelection, not the betterment of the average Australian citizen.

I suppose your well-researched exposé of his lies and falsehoods will be pushed under his PMO carpet as “events within the Canberra bubble”. Does his Pentecostal-Trumpian faith subject itself to the eighth commandment? “The Eighth Commandment condemns lying. Because God is regarded as the author of all truth, most churches believe that humans are obligated to honour the truth. The most obvious way to fulfil this commandment is not to lie — intentionally deceive another by speaking a falsehood.” Or maybe that is replaced by the 11th commandment: Don’t get caught out. Maybe Morrison should lay some hands on and burst that bubble. The most dangerous man in Australia.

Grant Corderoy writes: I am a foundation subscriber to crikey.com (and donated to Stephen Mayne in his political ambitions). Call me a slightly left-leaning Libertarian. Never voted for LNP or Labor in my life. But I run my business and numerous reports on “evidenced-based” facts. Unfortunately, Crikey has joined the (very poor) company of News/Fox/Guardian/ABC in ignoring basic journalism (I have a degree in this becoming-less-than-noble profession) that reporting facts and looking at all sides must be the first priority.

Crikey is not the internet newsletter it once was — now a predictable (in this case) anti-right-wing publication. I must say your introductory to this series of stories was condescending and facile — much like your opinion of the current prime minister. I will not be reading any of these articles let alone forwarding them. Shame, as I have directly encouraged subscriptions in the past for a number of people.

John Brennan writes: Great work from great people — heartfelt thanks for this. We have had monumental lies from prime ministers and politicians since day one, so I guess we have never really had a democracy. But since Howard, the propensity to lie is the norm. Deception, corruption, theft, manipulation, cruelty and incarceration … whatever it takes to maintain and hold power and control. Only a tiny segment of society gives a fuck — people like you. Oppositions, opinion leaders, whistleblowers and activists have been silenced and, worse still, the MSM, including the ABC, “manufacture consent” as Chomsky wrote 30 years ago. Perhaps we need to look at anarchism (not chaos) again where society is organised and operated from the bottom up — as in direct democracy?

Bob Pearce writes: I am quite happy for you to point out Morrison’s lies but to pretend that you are not partisan is a joke. You really sank to a low some months ago when you felt it necessary to justify publishing your article about recovered memory. I can only assume that was because most of your subscribers are totally biased — as a subscriber for several years, I like to read both sides of a story, not just one side.

Di Brown writes: Thanks Crikey for putting the dossier together. The sad thing is, that I feel everyone should have recognised by now, is that he’s as slippery as an eel and yet still he’s in power, still he’s the preferred PM. I don’t know what can be done to blast him and his equally dissembling party to oblivion. Somehow people who aren’t engaged with politics need to be woken up to the risk to our democracy. We’re on a slippery slope ourselves (sorry for the overuse of slippery, but it does seem apt!). I’m not sure how we stop them.

On Leslie Cannold’s Both Sides Now

Ian Bell writes: Leslie Cannold wrote a generic Yes v No article for you. However, your current series focuses on the specific case of Scott Morrison’s lies and falsehoods. Her article failed to reach any judgment on the Crikey premises, which I personally do support and appreciate. She failed to judge Morrison as a liar, whereas Bernard Keane and co have pinned that argument down with ample evidence. I’d give her a gong and say she was of dubious and little help.

Jim Feehely writes: Yes for Leslie and yes. The ‘No’ case relies on the falsehood that no lie matters because we all do it. Insultingly glib and fundamentally unethical. Imagine how much happier and more effective each person could be if he or she did not have to waste so much time and energy on filtering out bullshit.

If you’d like to add to the Lies dossier feedback, writes to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you’d like your letter to be considered for publication.