(Image: Hardie Grant/Private Media)

One of Scott Morrison’s characteristics as a liar is his focus on denying his own words and actions.

Unlike other leaders, the prime minister is less interested in lying about his political opponents — although he does that too — than in stopping his words and actions being held against him (otherwise known as basic accountability).

That’s the background to a cracking lie from September 2019 about the long-departed Labor senator Sam Dastyari, forced out of politics by his links with Chinese figures.

The Coalition had feasted off Dastyari’s woes and poor judgment in 2016, including Morrison, who labelled him “Shanghai Sam“. Just in case you’re wondering if maybe a staffer who was operating Morrison’s Twitter account was responsible for that, Morrison used it three times in a matter of minutes on Sky News.

As so often happens in politics, though, the pendulum swung the other way, and three years later Liberal member for Chisholm Grace Liu found herself under fire for her links with Chinese figures, and her refusal to criticise the Beijing regime. Labor’s criticism of Liu was, Morrison claimed, “casting a smear on Chinese Australians”. The following day, Morrison was asked a straightforward and obvious question: “Why was it racist to question Gladys Liu’s connections to China but it wasn’t racist to call Sam Dastyari ‘Shanghai Sam’?”

“I didn’t use either of those phrases,” Morrison blithely replied.

As we’ve repeatedly pointed out about Morrison, the fact that his lies can easily be checked doesn’t deter him any more than it deterred former US president Donald Trump. His own website shows he was lying. Unusually, the media actually chased Morrison down on the lie. His explanation? “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.”

That statement, of course, makes no sense whatsoever. How “I didn’t use either of those phrases” can relate to a single word “racist” is beyond the comprehension of anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the English language.

What evidently happened was that some genius in his office, asked to devise a plausible excuse for his blatant lie, carefully examined the question, saw that “racist” was used twice, noted that Morrison used “either” and thought that was enough to hang an excuse off. It was half-arsed, even by the lazy standards of Morrison’s office.