Politicians lie compulsively, it’s sometimes said. Maybe. Certainly they don’t let reality interfere too much with their promises before elections. At the same time, I am reluctant to badge them all as liars. For example, both George Bush senior and Paul Keating failed to deliver tax cuts which they’d promised. Tony Abbot introduced tax measures which he’d never promised. I don’t think they lied by commission or omission. There was no intention to deceive. They just got it wrong. They shouldn’t have got it wrong and deserve criticism for that. But not, in my view, for lying.

There’s even an argument for Antony Albanese, when he promised, ninety-seven times before the last election, held in May 2022, that annual household electricity prices would fall by $275 by 2025. Apparently, the promise was based on some modelling by the firm RepuTex, commission by the Labor Party. I tend to think that Mr Albanese and his sidekick Chris Bowen are so besotted by the siren call of “costless” sun and wind energy, the “cheapest” form of energy, that they’d fall for any old rope. I have so little confidence in their attachment to reality that I am willing to believe that they both actually believed that electricity prices would fall. In which case Albanese is a fool; but not, at least in respect of electricity prices, a liar.

A bit of explanation is in order on lying. We all lie at times. Obviously it’s forgivable if its inadvertent, as perhaps are all of the examples above. It’s forgivable if we lie to protect another’s feelings. I think its forgivable too, if unfortunate, and I suppose weak, if we lie to protect our own position or reputation. Bill Clinton claimed: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” That was a deliberate lie. But I thought at the time, and still do, that where went Bill so might we all. Protecting our own posterior is an endemic human weakness. Who is going to cast the first stone?

Now to lying of the despicable kind in order to deceive other people into acting against their best interests. Think of a conman. Here “the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) I have three very recent example in mind.

First to the aforementioned Albanese and two strikes. The first was his claim that the Voice was a modest proposal and a generous offer. He tried to fool voters by mischaracterising the far-reaching and racially-divisive nature of the proposition. He clearly knew what he was about. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t think of any more egregious lying by a politician; made worse when you think he is the Prime Minister of this great nation, out to dupe its citizens.

The second was his comment that the 860 Gazan refugees let into the country were on “temporary” visas. He full well knows that the courts will prevent them from ever being returned if they don’t want to go. The man has such chutzpah. He lies by deception, even when blind Freddy can see through it.

A third example is by courtesy of Penny Wong; our Minister for Foreign Affairs, no less. With singular smugness, she said that the government had also issued visas to Israeli Jews. The rational patriotic mind is thrown into utter despair at this patently false equivalence. Again, the chutzpah of this government minister is something to behold.

The three despicable lies, which I’ve laid out, are not normal. Don’t think that they are. They’re not. They are a sign of a latter-day creeping rottenness in the body politic. There is now a preparedness on the part of government ministers to deliberately mislead the Australian people. I don’t think we’ve seen the like before in Australia. No doubt they have in China, North Korea and Iran.