There were two leaders interviewed

on the SBS news service last night. One was the current Prime Minister. The other was the man who wants to oust him today.

I listened to them both. The Prime Minister made a statement. It sounded like a statement of fact. In it he was clearly appealing to the many elderly migrants in this country. It amounted to "if you vote for the opponents then you will not be able to travel back to your home countries for more than four weeks a year without losing your pension. No pensioner will be able to leave the country for more than four weeks without losing their pension."

He made this sound as if it was not merely a proposal but an actual fact. It was said with apparent sincerity. Yes, this was what would happen.

In the second interview the same "fact" was put to the leader of the opposition. Was it true. No, it was "absolutely false". There were no such plans. 

I had heard of this "proposal". It came to me from a dedicated supporter of the present government. He was gloating over the damage the proposal was going to do to the Opposition. He was similarly gloating over a number of other untruths being pushed by his party, particularly with respect to health, child care, tax and the cost of nuclear power. He actually knows none of the "facts" he was repeating are true "but this is how you have to do it to win". 

Yes, both sides will lie. Both sides will make statements they know to be false. This is about winning, having power, having control.

The pension claim however is perhaps a step too far. It was put out around here as a rumour. I heard it from a number of people. This seat is one of those "knife-edge" seats.  There are clusters of Italian, Greek and Vietnamese migrants. The older members of their communities do "go home" for extended periods from time to time. Their vote will be enough for a lazy MP to retain her seat. Many of them will already have voted. The pre-poll numbers suggest that a quarter of the electorate have already voted and many of them are elderly. 

It was good to see the Prime Minister shown up as the liar he is last night. The Leader of the Opposition may be no better but this was an issue which had barely been raised in campaigning.  It was a lie designed to inflict maximum harm among vulnerable elderly people.  I wonder how much damage it has done.