We teach children it is wrong

to lie so how is it that the Prime Minister can do it?

One of the much younger generation asked me this yesterday. Their father had read out a piece listing items the Prime Minister had either lied about or "backflipped" on. I found the list and it is extensive.

There is the very well known one about how power prices would fall by  $275 because of "renewable" energy. Rebates were put in place when it was obvious this was not going to happen but even with rebates the price of energy has risen well beyond that.  The plug on rebates was pulled out at the end of 2025 and prices are now rising still higher. 

  There was the promise to keep the previous government's stage three tax cuts exactly as planned with no changes. They have been changed and restructured  but only to the government's income stream advantage.  

They promised no changes to superannuation and then introduced a new tax on balances over $3 million.  

They promised "real" wages would grow and rise above pre-election levels.  That has not happened.  

They promised extra water under Murray-Darling Basin Plan and delivered 5% of what they promised. 

 The promised Makarrata Commission for truth-telling and treaty has been abandoned after the Voice referendum failed.  

They promised no changes to negative gearing but are now going ahead with changes that will do nothing for housing policy but will severely disadvantage a generation which did not have access to compulsory superannuation benefits.

They promised the long-term immigration plan was locked in. It was not. They are bringing in more migrants who have been shown in other parts of the world not to integrate.  They are being placed in areas the government is desperate to retain at the next election with their right to citizenship being fast tracked.

To move these people around they are trying to secure less than the mandated fuel supply but are telling us that being "given" an extra day's supply came about because of the Prime Minister's diplomacy. 

They backflipped on removing sexuality, gender identity and sexual variation questions from 2026 census but refused to add two questions which would have greatly assisted housing and health planning.  They tried to refuse to run a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack and rising antisemitism. It was only under immense pressure they announced one. •  At the same time they got the hate speech legislation through by splitting the bill to get it through Parliament.  They have removed the RMIT ABC election promise tracker amid scrutiny over these broken promises.  

They are just some of the things they promised and have not delivered. They did this and promised a new era of transparency and open government plus FOI reform so laws couldn’t be flouted. FOI refusal rates have nearly doubled to 23 per cent and full disclosures are lower than ever before.

Lying is part of the political game but these are lies the government has continued to repeat and will go on repeating. The financial mess the country is now is apparently the fault of the war in the Middle East. The Treasurer is making "savings" that are not savings at all. He is simply going to tell us that they will be spending less and providing less than they would like. He will take from those who have worked longer and hardest to give to a generation who believe they can have right now what their parents and grandparents spent a lifetime working for. It is the youngest generation which is more likely to vote for them.