Peta Credlin’s latest tirade isn’t journalism, it’s political projection

Using fear and spin where facts should be is journalism we shouldn't have to stomach, writes Ben Peterson.

THE RECENT ARTICLE by Peta Credlin in the Herald Sun doesn't read like journalism.

It reads like a sermon from someone whose party lost the pulpit.

Her opening jab – “a liar looks like he'll get back into The Lodge” – is a projection of the highest order, given the Coalition's own graveyard of broken promises. She claims Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is “untethered from reality”, but which reality is she talking about?

Take energy. Credlin lambasts the Labor Party's renewable transition for rising bills, ignoring the decade-long sabotage of energy policy under the Coalition, where “technology neutrality” was code for doing nothing. The CSIRO and AEMO both confirm: Renewables are the cheapest new energy source. With economies of scale, they will only continue to get cheaper. The problem isn't the shift, it's the delay. One mostly engineered by her side.

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Her scare campaign on immigration and housing avoids any mention of the Coalition’s own super-for-housing plan — itself a policy economists say would actually raise prices, and shove home ownership even further out of reach.

On Medicare, she cites bulk-billing rates whilst conveniently neglecting Labor's $6.1 billion injection to fix a system hollowed out during her own tenure as chief of staff. Credlin happily invokes falling standards without acknowledging the Party that dropped them in the first place.

Then there's nuclear, the one (and only) tangible policy the Liberals seem to have. Unfortunately, the plan avoids costings like the plague. Independent analysis pegs it at over $800 billion. Yet somehow, according to Credlin, it's Labor's 2030 emissions plan that's unaffordable. No mention of the years of climate inaction from a party whose leader infamously brought "clean coal" into parliament.

Albanese's failure to lower power bills by $275 is a broken promise and one Labor has to own. But spare us the sanctimony from a Coalition that pretended it could cut taxes, boost defence and return a surplus all at once. The Liberal Party line is “We can't afford three more years of Labor”. Yes, the Party that in 2023 had the fourth strongest budget balance of all G20 countries and in 2024 moved up to second. Where were we in 2021? We were 15th.

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The economy is a dominant issue in the Election. From now until polling day, Independent Australia will outline some key facts on the economy that put the kybosh on many of the myths, lies and distortions being peddled in this Election campaign.

Credlin expects Albanese to pirouette over her Olympic high bar, while Dutton smacks his head on a limbo stick.

It's Labor's fault for increasing house prices, but who gutted capital gains tax? It's Labor's fault for immigration, but who created the backlog of visas that needed to be processed? Australia has consistently had the highest inflation of any advanced economy, except... we didn't. Silence.

Credlin's outrage isn't moral, it's opportunistic.

She buries the lede: