When Politicians Lie

I have been lied to by politicians - directly. I suppose we all have at some point. But I have been lied to many times, personally and to my face.

It sucks when it happens, you want to believe them, many are good at getting you to believe them, it is how they got there, a tool of their trade. They may even wish they were telling the truth. It does not matter which party they belong to, in each party there are good honest politicians and there are bad dishonest politicians. Same goes for independents.

Sadly, like the reality show “Survivor”, modern party politics seems to favour scoundrels, puppets and non-threatening fools. Good ones do get through, but lately we are seeing streams of second-and-third-rate characters enter councils, state, and federal parliament across Australia.

It is sad.

The weaker politicians hire staff that are not even as good as them, because they are threat sensitive.

The parliamentarians and their staff hire and run the bureaucracy, it is not the other way around (as much as politicians like to hide behind and blame departments, the buck stops with them).

So far, we are not building a picture of honesty or truth.

Unfortunately, I think it gets worse, a lot worse. The very bottom of all in the honesty stakes are the lobbyist class. It is the business of lobbyists to bring politicians and the public on a journey to whatever outcome they are paid to deliver, to whoever happens to be the highest bidder that day. Often done by whatever means necessary and with the best spin money can buy.

Is Australia for sale? You bet it is. Every day of the week, week of the month and month of the year, favours and outcomes are sold by private business to corporations, churches/faith groups, pressure groups, NGOs, global organisations and every other group you can think of.

If you have the money, they have the time, and the ear of a snollygoster – ready, willing and able to help spin up a storm.

Sometimes this group, including politicians, staffers, bureaucrats, lobbyists and their clients pay for polling and research – even university research. They can have very deep pockets and are able to in aggregate steer research outcomes, directly or by weight of common benefit - indirectly. The common benefit of many organisations and groups at industry level like say the ‘green energy’ business. A lot of today’s research is simply bought and paid for.

The most insane trust mark today is computer modelling, this is a joke. I make computer software, and I can assure you that computer modeling is without doubt the easiest thing to manipulate to get the desired result.

At this point one must take pause and consider the following statement:

“If Dr Rachel Gunn (Raygun) can get a PhD and provide expert opinion, how much more absolute nonsense is out there passed off as fact, behind the prefix Dr.”

The answer is - a lot. More than you could possibly fathom, read through or discern in one lifetime.

So, let’s consider all of the spin, half-truths and straight lies passed down to us through official channels, through the mainstream media and your child’s schoolteacher. Let’s consider the alternative position, view or fact as truth. Understand the quantum of the problem and you will clearly see the need for Labor’s “Combatting Misinformation Bill”.

When the Government is not selling the truth, the alternate product must be made illegal. Modern Government does not like competition. They must build and maintain a monopoly on truth, because catching their lies has become as simple as opening X on your phone. The truth is everywhere, truth must be made illegal fast or Albanese, and his mates will be out of a job.

Senator Alex Antic, @SenatorAntic, is a brave man. I respect him, I am thankful for his work. He is taking the issues of Digital ID and Misinformation on, head-on, because as he says they are connected. If we don’t stop this our future could well be a digital prison of deception and product placement.

The battle for a prosperous Australia is a debate, words against words, ideas against ideas. We must have free speech and open debate so only the best ideas can and do win. We must have the best access to all information so we can cut through the lies in the open.

The truth does not scream, it does not demand, it does not fear questions, and it has no need for conflation. The truth is proud, quiet and confident, because it always wins in the end. Always.

The truth is, a misinformation law from any government is dangerous, if not now then under a future government, because it will at some point make the truth illegal, and I don’t want to live in that Australia.

We must fight this, hard, while we still can. Australia depends on it.

#Auspol #DigitalID #FreeSpeech