Cop this, buddy: Australian Prime Minister denies lying as he battles fallout from disastrous trip to Glasgow | Australia News

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been forced to respond to allegations that he repeatedly lies as the fallout from his disastrous trip to the G20 and the Glasgow climate conference continues.

Two weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron called Morrison a liar on the world stage, the Australian leader defended himself against accusations that he is being systematically untied with the truth, culminating in a radio host who told him asked bluntly if he had ever lied. public life.

“I don’t think I have, no. No, ”he said on Friday morning, before laughing.

Following the G20 meeting in Rome, Macron told gathered media that he “knew” that Morrison had lied when asked if he thought the head of the center-right coalition Australian government lied about the cancellation of a $ 90 billion submarine contract Australia had with France.

Morrison’s predecessor as prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was quick to support Macron’s characterization, telling reporters at the Cop26 conference that his former treasurer “lied to me repeatedly.”

“Scott has always had a reputation for lying,” he said.

Since then, Morrison has been forced to defend his record, a prospect made more difficult as he attempts to reposition his government’s climate record after nearly a decade of obstruction and denial.

Labor opposition has seized on Prime Minister’s unease, accusing him of ‘lying about a lie’ as Morrison attempts to rewrite some of his previous public comments on issues such as electric vehicles and vaccination rollout in Australia.

In the latest election campaign, Morrison criticized electric vehicles as unable to tow boats or trailers and accused the opposition of wanting to ‘end the weekend’ after Labor set itself an ambitious target to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in the sluggish Australian market.

Launching his own government’s electric vehicle push earlier this week, which includes a phased policy to expand hydrogen refueling infrastructure and help the private sector set up charging stations, Morrison denied ever having criticized electric vehicles.

Morrison claimed he had “never” attacked electric vehicles, despite his official comments, and wrongly insisted that there had been a “massive change” in technology in the 950 days since. that he had made the original comments.

It’s the same tactic he deployed in the face of questions about his repeated claim that the vaccine rollout in Australia was “not a race” – a comment he made several times earlier this year then. that Australians were struggling to access a Covid vaccine.

Trying to deflect criticism of his government’s role as much of Australia worked under a Delta earlier this year, Morrison denied speaking about the vaccination program itself and referring to it. regulatory approval (although the vaccines had already been approved when he commented).

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