(Image: Hardie Grant/Private Media)

With Scott Morrison having acquired a worldwide reputation as a liar, and the dossier of his lies and falsehoods growing steadily thicker, we thought it was time to pull out some of his greatest hits in the countdown to the release of my book Lies and Falsehoods: The Morrison Government and the New Culture of Deceit on November 17.

To kick off, we’ve chosen a pearler — a rare double-dip falsehood/lie from the master of mendacity that showcases all his talents.

During the 2019 election campaign, Morrison decided to savage Labor’s proposal to encourage electric car use — despite his own ministers such as Josh Frydenberg enthusiastically promoting them. An electric vehicle, Morrison said on April 7, 2019, “is 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”.

All those statements were wrong. Morrison was deliberately misleading Australians. Plenty of electric vehicles had towing capacity back then and most had ranges of at least 300 kilometres, and in one case up to 500 kilometres.

Indeed, the government has now embraced electric vehicles, relying on them to reduce transport emissions significantly as part of its “year of magical thinking” net zero plan.

But Morrison doesn’t usually lie about his opponents. His standard lies are about himself and his government. What makes the electric vehicles lie special is that, after a suitable delay, he then denied saying what he’d said.

“I didn’t ridicule that technology,” he insisted in March this year when questioned about electric vehicles. “That’s good technology.”

Bonus points for how unabashed and blatant that one is. A worthy start to our countdown.