Perceptions of dishonesty can end careers – but Australia’s leaders are ‘pretty good at dancing around the actual questions’
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They may exaggerate, evade or embellish the truth. They may bloviate, or bluster or blame their memory. But, experts say, smart politicians rarely outright lie.
“People tell each other lies,” the former cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said this week at the start of the ABC documentary Nemesis. The first of a three-part series, it covered Australia’s Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years between 2013 and 2022.
Deliberate confusion (a deliberate tactic to create confusion, intentionally creating a state of uncertainty or misunderstanding. “Detailed programmatic specificity”, anyone? ).
Diverting attention (redirecting focus away from a specific topic or issue).
Exaggeration (overstating or magnifying the truth to make something appear more significant).
False emotions (displaying an emotion to display or mask the true emotion).
Telling the truth falsely (by accepting an outcome but blaming the wrong thing for it).
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