Mark Knight’s ‘polliegraph’ points to issue of mistrust in politicians
Mark Knight has come up with a novel way to test the honesty of politicians during election campaigns – though by the looks of Albo’s nose, the “polliegraph” isn’t the only indicator to watch
READING LEVEL: ORANGE
Is it such a huge surprise that politicians may tell the odd porky? Porky being the rhyming slang for pork pie – lie.
I would think that most people probably expect it.
Politicians only say things that they think we want to hear. So we get sugar-coated versions of the truth.
The long term cost of our elected representatives telling “untruths”* though is that it degrades* the faith the public has in our system of government. It breeds an unhealthy cynicism* of those in power, leading to distrust.
Trust is a precious commodity* – the essence of healthy communities.
If you were to play devil’s advocate* and look at it from the point of view of a politician, I suppose you probably couldn’t blame them for twisting the facts a little. The media is on their case 24/7 and they also have to contend with social media reposting their every move and utterance*, where they get turned into some very funny memes.
Not to mention what the political cartoonists do with them!
At the moment in federal politics, we are dealing with a real banger of a porky being told by our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the last election campaign. When asked countless times by the press pack if a re-elected Albanese government would make changes to property investor tax breaks like negative gearing* and the Capital Gains Tax* (CGT) discount, Albo said a firm NO. There would be no changes.
At one point during the campaign, he got a little testy after being asked once more about guaranteeing that he would NOT touch the tax breaks. He shouted at the journos, “Yes, how hard is it? For the 50th time!!!”
So the voting public went to the election, returning Albo to government with a huge majority, many of them confident in the fact that he would live up to his word and not touch negative gearing and CGT.
Cut to this week’s federal budget and wouldn’t you know it, Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers announced that negative gearing would be scrapped for investment properties into the future, unless they were newly built, and the CGT discount would be laid to rest. His reasons were that the government wanted to try and make it easier for young people to buy their first home and not have to compete with investors supported by tax breaks.
Property investors were gobsmacked! The howls of anger and outrage sounded like the Collingwood cheer squad when an umpiring decision goes against them. “We were lied to!” And they were. It’s all there on film for all to see, the PM saying, “No changes.”
In their defence, the PM and treasurer said they hadn’t lied, they had just changed their position. Nice one. They wanted to see the younger generation have the ability to buy into the housing market just like their parents did so that’s why the tax breaks were wound back. Fair enough. If they had said that during the election campaign instead of denying they would make any changes, would that have been more honest? Would the public vote for them based on that? I decided to have a look at the matter of truth-telling in a cartoon.
I thought the cartoon should examine how politicians are meant to be held to account. One way is by the media. During the election campaign, politicians put their policies on display and these are then tested by questioning from the press pack. The answers to these questions provide information and help the voting public make their decisions on how to vote. We have to take their answers at face value. If untruths are told then it devalues the standing of the political system. So in my cartoon I thought I would create the “Pollie-graph” test for politicians during election campaigns.
A polygraph* is a machine that tests whether people are telling the truth. It is a lie detector. My version, the Polliegraph, is specially for politicians! In the cartoon, Albo is holding a press conference and is taking questions. The cartoon sees him hooked up to the Polliegraph with sensors attached to measure the truthfulness of his answers in graphic detail.
I don’t like the look of that graph on the computer screen. Although I think the length of his nose has given him away already!
POLL
GLOSSARY
- untruths: falsehoods, often used as a polite way of saying ‘lies’
- degrades: wears away or undermines
- cynicism: a negative attitude based on a distrust of other people’s motives
- commodity: a resource that is worth something
- devil’s advocate: someone who argues against a popular idea, even if they don’t personally agree with that point of view. “Playing devil’s advocate” is used to test the strength of an argument and encourage deeper thinking
- utterance: words spoken
- negative gearing: when the costs of keeping an investment property are claimed as a tax deduction against an investor’s yearly income. For example, if an investor paid $20,000 a year in mortgage repayments, council rates, maintenance costs and other expenses in order to hold an investment property because the rent they earned wasn’t enough to cover all of those expenses, they could deduct that $20,000 from their taxable income, thus reducing the amount of tax they would then have to pay. In this year’s budget, the government decided to phase out negative gearing for new investors unless they buy newly built properties
- Capital Gains Tax: CGT is a tax that investors pay on any profits (capital gains) they earn when selling an asset, such as an investment property. The CGT discount meant investors only needed to pay tax on 50 per cent of their capital gains if selling after 12 months of ownership (depending on the structure they bought it under). The budget has changed the rule so that CGT for new investments will be adjusted for indexation and charged at a flat 30 per cent minimum tax rate
- polygraph: a machine that records a person’s heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and skin conductivity while they are being asked questions in order to interpret whether the person is lying or telling the truth
EXTRA READING
Budget ends 27-year-old tax rule
Govt weighs property tax ‘break in’
Security net turned ejector seat
QUICK QUIZ
1. What election promise did the government break in this year’s budget?
2. What effect does it have on society when politicians tell “untruths”?
3. In what way does the media help to hold politicians to account?
4. What is a polygraph?
5. What two visual elements in the cartoon symbolise whether Anthony Albanese is being truthful or dishonest?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What can we do?
Can you think of any ways that we could really make sure that our politicians tell the truth? Write down as many ideas you can think of.
Time: Spend at least 10 minutes on this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Civics and Citizenship
2. Extension
Is changing your mind about something the same as lying about it?
Write a paragraph explaining your ideas about this question.
Time: Spend at least 20 minutes on this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability, Civics and Citizenship
VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.
Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.