The main casualty in global politics in 2019 was "truth".
While truth is usually defined as indicating various forms of accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or a standard or ideal, it also has the important dimension relating to sincerity in action, character, or utterance.
What we have seen increasingly in recent years, and effectively now defining "politics" this year has been political leaders deliberately ignoring, or knowingly distorting, established facts and evidence for what they perceive to be to their short-term political benefit.
Trump has emerged as the master of such behavior, tagging all alternative evidence or views about what he is seeking to do and prosecute as "fake news", yet he has also demonstrated a capacity to subsequently "reverse" his view on the same issue, with equal conviction, as circumstances or opinions have moved further against his original action or view.
This is his defining style. On every issue he seeks to "control the narrative", wanting to create anxiety, even "fear", about alternatives.
As one of his biographers has suggested Trump thrives on chaos, he is the "master of chaos".
On any occasion he will run any argument he can muster in an attempt to support his position, even against overwhelming evidence and advice to the contrary.
Recall his many, many statements about building the wall along the Mexican border and getting the Mexicans to pay for it; or restoring the "rust-belt states to their former glory; or withdrawing troops from Syria; or being a "great negotiator" even though his attempts in relation to North Korea, trade, resetting various "alliances", etc., have been pedestrian, at best.
Basically he has failed to "Make America Great Again" although, of course, he would violently disagree.
The current impeachment process in the US is most disturbing because there is a standoff between the Democrats and Republicans, on essentially the same set of facts/evidence, both sides simply attempting to exploit the issue for perceived short-term political gain.
Similarly, Johnson has easily won the recent UK election, with essentially just one slogan "Get Brexit Done", without any acknowledgement of what may be an economically painful and elongated transition period to achieve the final exit, having to negotiate a trade deal with the EU, and then all other trading partners, at a very challenging time for the UK economy, and against mounting pressure, from the Scots and perhaps Northern Ireland, to "disunite" the UK.
Morrison, it seems, has increasingly modelled much of his behaviour on Trump, and is now seen by many as "Trump Lite".
Morrison, it seems, has increasingly modelled much of his behaviour on Trump, and is now seen by many as "Trump Lite".
He too has had a tendency to use virtually any argument in support of his position, for what he perceives to be to his short-term political advantage, even if that position is generally seen as indefensible against the considerable evidence to the contrary.
Recall his knee-jerk decision to move our Embassy in Israel in the heat of the Wentworth by-election; or his recent willingness to even mislead the parliament on some four occasions, in an attempt to defend Minister Taylor; or his adherence to the slogan of a "strong economy" as overwhelming evidence mounts that it is indeed quite weak.
His ignorance of, or bending of, the truth has come to a head in recent days in relation to his initially secretive Hawaiian holiday, with bush fires and drought raging, in the context of his inaction on the climate issue, creating significant doubts about his "sincerity in action, character and utterance".
Most defining has been his misrepresentations, and deliberate distortions, in relation to his holiday, to the significance of the link between increasingly frequent and intense fires and droughts, and concerning his government's totally inadequate and irresponsible response to the longer-term challenge of defining a transition pathway to a low-carbon Australia by mid-century.
At a time when most Australians are desperate for genuine, truthful, leadership, in response to current issues, and to take our nation forward through the next several decades Morrison is seen to have failed miserably.
Expect his artificial construct of the "Quiet Australian" to now evaporate before his eyes!
John Hewson is a professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.
