Pearls and Irritations

1.

Morrison: “As a government, we believe in the two-state solution. It seems now in politics here in Australia that is no longer a bipartisan view, and I think that’s disappointing.”¹

The truth: On May 13, Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson Penny Wong issued a statement on the Palestine crisis, saying “we remain committed to a just and enduring two-state solution”.²

Morrison: [On Taiwan] “We’ve always understood the one system, two countries arrangement and we will continue to follow our policies there … One country, two systems, I should say.” ¹

The truth: There is no “one country, two systems arrangement” in relation to Taiwan recognised by Australia; government officials briefed journalists that it was a mistake and the prime minister had meant to refer to Hong Kong, where “one country, two systems” has long been accepted.

However, the prime minister, when asked in a later interview with SBS on May 12 (the transcript of which has not been published by the prime minister’s office) “did you make a mistake in that comment?”, answered “no” and added “what we know is that we have a situation with China in which we’ve recognised how they see these relationships in the region, and particularly in relation to Taiwan and Hong Kong and things of that nature”.

This again misstates Australia’s position, as Australia does not recognise China’s claim to Taiwan, but merely acknowledges that China makes the claim.^{2, 3}

Morrison: “Our current target will see Australia — this is for 2030 — reduce our emissions by 70% per unit of GDP on 2005 levels…”¹

The truth: The government’s own documents state: “The emissions intensity of the economy (Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) has continued to decline and is projected to fall by 58% from 2005 to 2030.”^{2, 3}

Morrison: “I want to stress that at no time yesterday did I make any comment about the actions of the European Union, nor did I indicate any of the background reasons for the lack of supply that we have received from those contracted doses. And so, any suggestion that I, in any way, made any criticism of the European Union yesterday, would be completely incorrect.”¹

The truth: Morrison said the previous day about reasons for slow vaccine rollout, “the supply is the major restraint and always has been, whether it’s been the non-delivery of vaccines from overseas, some 3 million that we were relying upon, and we all are aware of the situation in Europe and other places that has frustrated that supply”.²

Morrison: “Right now, you [a Sky News journalist] would be aware that in your own organisation that there is a person who has had a complaint made against them for harassment of a woman in a women’s toilet and that matter is being pursued by your own HR department.”¹

The truth: No such complaint of harassment was ever made. As Morrison admitted in a late-night apology the same day, “I deeply regret my insensitive response to a question from a News Ltd journalist by making an anonymous reference to an incident at News Ltd that has been rejected by the company. I accept their account. I was wrong to raise it, the emotion of the moment is no excuse”.²

Morrison: “As I’ve indicated to the House before and I’ll indicate again today, this work [the inquiry into who knew about Brittany Higgins in the prime minister’s office] is being done by the secretary of my department … He has not provided me with a further update about when I might expect that report, but I have no doubt the opposition will be able to ask questions of him in Senate estimates next week, which is the appropriate place where those matters can be raised with the secretary of my department.” ¹

The truth: According to Phil Gaetjens, the head of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), he updated Morrison on March 9 that his inquiry was placed on indefinite hold while police investigations were undertaken. Gaetjens refused to answer any questions at estimates.

Morrison: “I thank the member for his question [about former Liberal ministers travelling overseas during the pandemic] and wonder why he’d want to bring personalities into this, given that Mr Rudd has done the same thing.”¹

The truth: Kevin Rudd never left the country during the pandemic. Morrison was forced to apologise to Rudd that day.²

Morrison: “There are 40 ships, and I’m told there’s some 90,000 containers out there [delayed by industrial action]. That includes medical supplies. I mean we cannot have the militant end of the union movement effectively engaging in a campaign of extortion against the Australian people in the middle of a COVID-19 recession … You can go down to Port Botany or down to Kurnell and have a look out there and you can see them lining up…” ¹

The truth: Seven vessels were either waiting or had just arrived at Port Botany when Morrison made the claim. Three were delayed. The stevedoring company stated no medical supplies were affected by the dispute.^{2, 3}

Morrison: “The agreement puts Australia at the top of the queue, if our medical experts give the vaccines the green light.”¹

The truth: Australia’s vaccination rollout began on February 22, 2021. By that date, according to the Financial Times’ global tracker, over 200 million vaccinations had already been delivered worldwide. The Australian rollout schedule was subsequently delayed repeatedly due to the government’s inability to source vaccines.^{2, 3}

Morrison: “The authority for making the decisions in relation to that program [sports grants] was the minister for sport. That is the fact, Mr Speaker. It may be inconvenient to the opposition, but that is the fact. The only authority sought from the prime minister’s office and from me was in relation to announcements.”¹

The truth: Evidence from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) shows that Morrison’s office dictated the removal and addition of sports grants to the minister for sport’s office for the political benefit of the government. The ANAO stated “on March 26, 2019 the prime minister’s office had advised the minister’s office that it was expected that the minister would write to the prime minister to seek ‘authority’ on the approved projects and inform him of the ‘rollout plan’”.²

Morrison: “The head of the PM&C had access to whatever document he required [when preparing his report into the “sports rorts” scandal].”¹

The truth: In his submission to the Senate Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Phil Gaetjens said: “It is important to note that the auditor-general is not required to share audit information with external parties in most cases, nor do I have the power to compel information from individuals. In this case, the auditor-general did not provide any information to me that the ANAO used for its audit.”²

Morrison: “I think it’s important to note that the auditor-general did not find there were any ineligible projects that were funded under this scheme, and nor did he say that rules had been broken.”¹

The truth: Officials from the ANAO told a Senate inquiry that 43% of projects funded under the program were ineligible when agreements were signed. Morrison had cited the ANAO’s original report, which said “no applications assessed as ineligible were awarded grant funding”. But officials explained this related to Sport Australia’s assessment of ineligibility. Many projects that were ineligible under program guidelines but wrongly assessed as eligible were funded.²

Morrison: “Well, I just reject the premise of the question [as to whether the government believed there was nothing wrong with using public funds for its own private political interests]. That’s not why we did it … You can have an editorial on it if you like and you’re welcome to that. But that’s not why I did it. And that’s not why the government did it.”¹

The truth: The ANAO’s independent report concluded the $100 million community sport infrastructure fund was targeted towards marginal or Coalition-held seats, with the government using a spreadsheet colour-coded by electorate to determine who should receive funding.²

Morrison: “There is no credible energy transition plan, for an economy like Australia in particular, that does not involve the greater use of gas as an important transition fuel.”¹

The truth: There are many energy transition plans that involve less gas, including the one by the independent Australian Energy Market Operator. On the other hand, there are no transition plans that involve a greater use of gas.²

Morrison: “We will reduce our carbon emissions per capita by half between now and 2030 … our per capita emissions will fall by half over the next 10 years.”¹

The truth: The government’s December 2019 emissions forecast (current when Morrison spoke) showed per capita emissions falling from 21 tonnes per person to 17 tonnes per person in 2030 — a fall of 19%, not 50%, over the next 10 years. The government’s December 2020 emissions forecast did not materially alter that forecast.^{2, 3}

Morrison: “Emissions today are 50 million tonnes less on average each year under our government than under the previous government.”¹

The truth: The government’s then-current quarterly National Greenhouse Gas Inventory data showed emissions were 537.5 million tonnes in 2012-2013 compared with 532 million tonnes in 2018-19 — 5 million tonnes (not 50 million tonnes) less. In 2020, the data for those years had been revised to 539.1 million tonnes in 2012-13 and 529.5 in 2018-19, or a difference of nearly 10 million tonnes.^{2, 3}

Morrison: “I should stress that there is no dispute in this country about the issue of climate change globally, and its effect on global weather patterns, and that includes how that impacts in Australia … I have seen a number of people suggest that somehow the government does not make this connection. The government I lead has always made that connection and that has never been in dispute.”¹

The truth: Several of Morrison’s ministers and backbenchers have disputed the connection between climate change and bushfires. Ministers or then-ministers who have done so include:

David Littleproud, September 11, 2019: “I’m not a scientist. I haven’t made an opinion one way or the other … I don’t think it really matters.”

Peter Dutton, February 5, 2020: “Did the bushfires start in some of these regions because of climate change? No. It started because somebody lit a match.”

Matt Canavan, December 12, 2019: “The fires have not started due to climate change, they’ve started because some silly people have done some stupid things … This attempt to link an event to one cause, is simply clearly, manifestly wrong.”

Morrison: “The video message [which the Liberal Party ran during this summer’s bushfires] simply communicates the government’s policy decisions and the actions the government is undertaking to the public.”¹

The truth: The ad was on behalf of the Liberal Party, authorised by the Liberal Party and the host page solicited donations to the Liberal Party.^2,3

Morrison: “Well Zoey [Salucci-McDermott, a bushfire victim in Cobargo] and I did speak, actually, and she did raise the issue of her concerns about the level of support for the local brigade that was there. That was the matter that she raised with me. And I said I’d pass that on to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service … We talked about what she was asking for, which was greater support for the firefighting effort in that part of New South Wales. So we talked about that.”^{1, 2}

The truth: The only words Morrison said to Zoey Salucci-McDermott, whom he met for a few seconds on a meet-and-greet with residents in Cobargo during the bushfires, were “I understand, I understand”.

Morrison: “We took the advice of the fire commissioners. And the fire commissioners’ advice were [sic] the same as that which is being provided. So we’ve acted on that advice.”¹

The truth: The National Aerial Firefighting Centre, which is overseen by the National Council for Fire and Emergency Services, asked for significant extra funding in late 2017, which was refused by the government.²

Morrison: “I refer to March 2013 — Ross Mitchell, a detective in Victoria Police’s fraud squad, stated that prime minister Julia Gillard was under investigation over her role in the creation of an AWU slush fund. He said: ‘Let me make this perfectly clear. The prime minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, is under investigation by police. This is fact.’“¹

The truth: These comments were in fact made by Sydney radio host Ben Fordham in 2013. Then-attorney-general and leader of the house Christian Porter was forced to provide a letter to the Speaker of the House acknowledging the falsehood hours later.^{2, 3}

Morrison: [On whether he had asked the Trump administration to invite Hillsong pastor Brian Houston to a White House state dinner] “It’s gossip.” When pressed as to whether it was true or not, he repeated that it was “gossip” and that he had already answered the question of whether it was true or not.¹

The truth: After months of refusing to answer the question and dismissing the story as “gossip”, Morrison told Ben Fordham on 2GB on March 3, 2020 that he had included the Hillsong leader on a list of potential guests that was ultimately decided by the White House. “On that occasion, we put forward a number of names, that included Brian, but not everybody whose names we put forward were invited,” Morrison said.²

Morrison: [Asked why it wasn’t racist to call Sam Dastyari “Shanghai Sam”] “I didn’t use either of those phrases.”¹

The truth: Morrison repeatedly used the phrase “Shanghai Sam” in tweets and interviews. He later explained “I was referring to the word racist that I heard twice in the question and I’ve got to say my focus was on the bushfires”.²

Morrison: “[An electric vehicle is] not going to tow your trailer. It’s not going to tow your boat. It’s not going to get you out to your favourite camping spot with your family.”¹

The truth: Standard electric vehicles then on the market when this statement was made could travel, on average, 300 to 400 kilometres on a single charge. Some models — the Tesla Model X, for example — could reach up to 500 kilometres, with towing capacity.²

BONUS LIE

Morrison: [On electric vehicles] “I didn’t ridicule that technology, that’s good technology.”³

Morrison: “The fact that Bill Shorten, as a former financial services minister and an assistant treasurer, doesn’t understand the complexity of these measures … he doesn’t understand how to legislate financial services reform. Now, there’s a good reason — he’s never done it! They didn’t do it when they were in government last time. They had Storm Financial, they had all of those — nothing, zip, zero.”¹

The truth: As financial services minister, Bill Shorten negotiated the passage of major financial services regulation changes, including the Future of Financial Advice reforms, through a hung parliament in 2012. After winning the federal election in 2013, the Coalition tried repeatedly to dilute the reforms, aimed at protecting consumers, but were unsuccessful.²

Morrison: “Someone who is a paedophile, a rapist, who has committed murder, any of these other crimes, can just be moved on the say-so of a couple of doctors on Skype.”¹

The truth: Under the medivac bill being discussed at that point, the minister could refuse a transfer on security or serious character grounds. A later version of the bill went further, to include ministerial discretion in three areas, including on the grounds that the minister suspects the transferee has a substantial criminal record or would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct.²

Morrison: “The latest projections report confirms our government has set Australia on track to meet and beat our 2030 target.”¹

The truth: The then-current 2018 Australia’s Emissions Projections 2018 — on which Morrison was commenting — showed that in 2030 Australia was projected to emit more than 115 Mt CO2-e more than the lower target of 26% below 2005 levels. In terms of cumulative emissions, Australia was projected to be 328 Mt CO2-e above its lower target level by 2030 even using Kyoto carryover credits, which have been criticised internationally.

The current, post-pandemic projection for 2020 is that Australia will still be well above the 26% target in 2030. Only the inclusion of a special scenario, based on the government’s “Technology Investment Roadmap”, allows a forecast that comes in just above the upper target of 28% below 2005 levels.²