It was the lie that defined the 2016 election campaign, slashed Malcolm Turnbull's majority by 14 seats and almost propelled Bill Shorten to victory.
And on Thursday, "Mediscare" claimed one more victim - Liberal Party federal director Tony Nutt.
More News Videos
- Video duration
- 02:54
Lies, damn lies and politics
- Video duration
- 02:11
Lindt siege police response in question
- Video duration
- 02:39
The clinic where wines go for a check-up
- Video duration
- 01:15
Labor condemns same-sex smear
- Video duration
- 01:17
'Back to the bad old days'
- Video duration
- 00:49
ISIS losing ground
- Video duration
- 01:31
Cyber threats significant: Turnbull
- Video duration
- 01:11
Australia's safety concerns
Lies, damn lies and politics
Liberal Party Director Tony Nutt calls for an end of mediscare-type campaign 'lies', but finds himself called out over past coalition transgressions. Courtesy ABC.
In the traditional post-election address to the National Press Club, Mr Nutt attempted to take the moral high ground over lies in politics and take a stick to Labor over its claim the Coalition would privatise Australia's universal healthcare provider.
But all he did was shoot himself in the foot, facing a barrage of questions on the Coalition's own history of stretching the truth during election campaigns.
"I call on the Labor party to pledge to never again behave in that way," he said during the speech, adding that some voters had been misled and that "Mediscare" helped to "shift the focus of the campaign on to health and away from the economy".
The Coalition, he said, had hit its key lines about keeping the economy strong, the border secure, and not gone into deep negative territory because party research showed that that was a turn-off to voters.
Nevertheless, Labor's "Mediscare" message, delivered through on-the-ground campaigning, TV advertisements, phone calls and misleading text messages, though untrue, had worked.
But it was, Mr Nutt said, a lie, a complete lie, a cold-blooded lie and more - 16 times in total he made the point.
It was during the question and answer session the federal director veered off into the dangerous territory of the age-old topic of lies and politics, and came dangerously unstuck.
"Isn't the broader lesson from this election that lying in Australian politics can win you votes, seats and almost win you an election?" Mr Nutt was asked.
"Are we really saying that taking an absolute lie, a cold-blooded lie, and shoving it down the throat of vulnerable people in their 70s and 80s who are scared to death that their Medicare might be pulled back is acceptable. Is there no standard? Is there no tactic unacceptable?" an emotional Mr Nutt, almost moved to tears, fired back.
What about the Coalition's negative campaign attacking the now-elected Labor MP, Anne Aly?
"You used some language which sounds like somebody else's press release. I don't accept that anyone was smeared," Mr Nutt shot back.
"Can you really stand there and say that the Labor Party can't campaign on the issue of Medicare when you've [the Coalition] run very strong campaigns in relation to asylum seekers that have been very successful politically?" came the third question.
"You can certainly run campaigns on Medicare. You can run campaigns on healthcare. Just don't grossly lie. Border protection is a contestable public policy issue, it's debated in the community, different people have positions and they argue their positions. But we don't lie when we talk about it," he said.
It was hard not to think, at least for a moment, of the Children Overboard affair in the lead-up to the 2001 election, when Howard government ministers claimed, misleadingly, asylum seekers had thrown kids into the sea and decided to "get tough" on border protection.
(Surely Mr Nutt, a former staffer to Mr Howard, has not forgotten this inglorious episode?)
And the questions continued.
What about Coalition claims that the carbon tax would lead to the South Australian city of Whyalla being wiped off the map, and $100 legs of lamb roast, neither of which occurred?
"I'm happy to have a discussion with anyone about improving the standards of public life...[but] there actually was a tax. Now you can debate a particular point about legs of pork or something, fair point. But there actually was a tax and it actually was repealed," the federal director replied to the fourth question.
And on it went to the final question on whether former prime minister Tony Abbott had lied about a "budget emergency" back in 2013.
"I'm not talking about a phrase or whether a politician sends an SMS or says it, what we're talking about is cold-bloodedly lying and targeting that lie in your campaign technique publicly . . . I do think that a line should be drawn at that kind of technique," he replied.
The lesson for Mr Nutt, and for politicians everywhere?
Be careful what you wish for when you demand an end to lies in politics.
The distance between the moral high ground and the floor can be shorter than you think.
284 comments
Comment are now closed