The very best of mendacious Morrison: the lucky few who get an apology for his lies

Sometimes, very rarely, Scott Morrison admits he’s lied, or at least that he was “wrong”. But you have to be in exalted company to get an acknowledgment and apology.

The most prominent example was when the prime minister found himself in hot water with the media outlet devoted to supporting him, News Corp. Needled by Sky News’ Andrew Clennell about the behaviour of his staff in response to the crisis over gender and workplace relations that engulfed his government earlier this year, an angry and rattled Morrison lashed out: “Right now, you would be aware that in your own organisation that there is a person who has had a complaint made against them for harassment of a woman in a women’s toilet and that matter is being pursued by your own HR department.”

It was completely false — a press gallery gossip-meets-Chinese whispers version of a workplace argument between two News Corp employees, with no harassment complaint and nothing to do with Sky News. News Corp immediately said Morrison’s claims were untrue and no one was under investigation.

With his biggest media supporter firing at him, Morrison was forced into a humiliating backdown — albeit on Facebook — that night: “I deeply regret my insensitive response to a question from a News Ltd journalist by making an anonymous reference to an incident at News Ltd that has been rejected by the company. I accept their account. I was wrong to raise it, the emotion of the moment is no excuse.”

By the way, Morrison’s office has taken down that apology, which is probably just a coincidence given a lot more people are now talking about his lies and all.

Who else other than the Murdochs get an apology? Kevin Rudd, albeit for a particularly blatant lie. In the heat of debate about Tony Abbott coming and going from Australia while Australians were prevented from travelling or returning last December, Morrison simply made shit up. “Mr Rudd has done the same thing,” he told Parliament, without any basis whatsoever.

Rudd immediately called out the lie, saying he hadn’t left Queensland since March.

Caught out misleading Parliament, Morrison had to give in, sending a letter to the clerk of the House saying: “I apologise to Mr Rudd for the statement and am pleased to correct the record.”

Julia Gillard wasn’t quite so lucky. Morrison’s lie about her in November 2019 claimed that a Victorian fraud squad police officer had said she was under investigation. In fact the statement was made by right-wing shock jock Ben Fordham in 2013. Morrison had to correct the record, but Gillard got no apology. Christian Porter, then attorney-general, Leader of the House and dreaming of the prime ministership and now the soon-to-be-former member for Pearce, told Parliament: “That does not change the fact which remains, that there was such an investigation with respect to former prime minister Julia Gillard in existence.”

Everyone else about whom Morrison has lied or told falsehoods — Anthony Albanese, Emmanuel Macron, Gladys Berejiklian, Phil Gaetjens, the MUA, Zoey Salucci-McDermott, state and territory fire commissioners, Sam Dastyari, Bill Shorten — have never received even an admission that Morrison was wrong, let alone an apology.

You have to be a vocal ex-prime minister or Rupert Murdoch to get one of those.