EDITORIAL: Labor has a fundamental problem with the truth

One must draw one of two conclusions from the divergent accounts given by Anthony Albanese and the Australian Defence Force of the events surrounding a live firing exercise by the Chinese navy off the NSW coast.

The first is that the Prime Minister misled the public by feeding us incorrect information.

The second, no less damning conclusion, is that he himself does not know what is going on.

Mr Albanese initially claimed China gave “notice” to Australia of the drill. The ADF says the first they were aware of it was 40 minutes after the exercise began, through Airservices Australia, relaying a message from a Virgin pilot who heard a Chinese broadcast.

Both cannot be true.

In the days after the news broke, Mr Albanese sought to downplay China’s menacing behaviour, drawing a false equivalence between its actions in the Tasman and freedom of navigation exercises conducted by Australia’s navy in the South China Sea and Sea of Japan.

It is a truly baffling position for an Australian Prime Minister to take.

And it’s yet more evidence that this Labor Government has a fundamental problem with the truth.

Evasion and obfuscation are its go-to manoeuvres, even on innocuous matters.

Mr Albanese could have been honest with Australians as to the manner in which Defence learnt of China’s activities in the Tasman Sea.

Yes, it raises questions about the ADF’s surveillance capabilities, and the strength of Australia’s relationship with China.

Awkward, certainly. But that’s not reason to mislead Australians, or to offer-up half-truths.

This addiction to prevarication isn’t confined to Mr Albanese.

It was revealed on Thursday that Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not meet with any Israeli representatives during a September trip to the United Nations’ General Assembly, despite making time to meet with the Iranian Foreign Minister, the leader of the Palestinian Authority and attended a working dinner with representatives of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

When asked to explain why she did not meet with any Israeli representatives, Ms Wong, who has been a strident critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, said her direct counterpart was not in attendance at the time.

That piece of sophistry doesn’t explain why she did not seek meetings with any other Israeli representative, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the nation’s permanent representative to the UN.

Back at home, we still don’t have a satisfactory answer as to when Mr Albanese was first briefed on the caravan found in Sydney’s north packed with explosives last month, believed to be part of an anti-Semitic terror plot.

All this deception does is feed into the perception of Mr Albanese and his Government as weak and untrustworthy and perpetuates a feeling of unease.

They must stop the spin and start treating Australians with respect.