Last night on Sky News, Peta Credlin, the former Chief of Staff to failed Australian Prime Minster Tony Abbott, made a blatant announcement that blind-Freddy had been expecting since 2013.  In a move that shocked absolutely no-one at all Ms. Credlin announced Julia Gillard’s Carbon Tax was not actually a tax, just ‘brutal politics.’

She also confirmed it took about six months to get the breakthrough the opposition party needed but once they achieved it, they knew they’d won the debate and the government.

Now whether you applaud the Liberal’s for grabbing hold of a lie and running with it or not; whether you appreciate their cunning in removing a mechanism not affecting the Australian public but only affecting the big polluters; whether or not you approve of the $7.6 billion hit to the Australian budget – that’s $7.6 billion less in annual revenue to the government but please, tell me how the disabled and the unemployed are draining the country dry – there is one thing you need to keep in mind.

The Australian people were played by both the Media and the Liberal Party as sheep. And they baa’d on demand.

Like a flock of uneducated sheep, there are still people in this country sitting waiting for their fabled $550 rebate. There are still people expecting to see their power bills reduce in price, despite energy pricing being set through a combination of state and federal regulators.

The mythical ‘Great Big Tax On Everything’, the tax destined to wipe Whyalla off the map, to raise the price of a humble leg of lamb to over $100. Election slogan number 1: Axe the Tax. The tax that showed Australian’s are as gullible as those American’s who voted for Donald Trump. The tax that did not exist.

Face it Australia, you got played for a fool. You got PR’d and propagandised into a corner. Donald Trump could have learned a thing or two from the Tony Abbott election. A litany of outright and bald-faced lies now being dismissed as ‘brutal politics.’

No cuts to education – brutal politics. No cuts to funding to the ABC or SBS – brutal politics. No cuts to health funding – brutal politics. No changes to pensions – brutal politics.

Face it the Abbott Government, while being an absolute disaster, is still not as bad as the current mob of aimless Liberals and Nationals. They’re too busy flirting with Pauline Hanson across the Senate to actually achieve anything else.

In an era where the White House Press Secretary can say that we can ‘disagree with the facts,’ and the media doesn’t blink, in a time when Kellyanne Conway, senior counsellor the US President can make up terrorists attacks and  the media who calls her on it are called “fake news,’ what hope to we have of honesty in politics.

When the media is so quick to jump in bed with the politician who will give them the quickest sound byte for their 24/7 news cycle and doesn’t care about ‘facts’ at all, we are a country and a people lost.

Without the media to hold the politicians to the policy we are given what we deserve.

I used to work – a while ago now – for an economic think tank. It purported to be independent and I tried my best to keep it so when I was producing their lunches even though there was a rule about only sitting Governments being allowed on the platform. I sat through dozens of lunches listening to Liberal MP’s and Senators talk about the future and where the Australian economy is/was headed.

I’ve come to realise the people we put in power in this country don’t care a jot for the people they’re supposed to be representing. They’re there simply to put cash in their own pocket, to make the most of their time at the trough.

Tantrum throwing in the House of Representatives by the nation’s leader instead of answering points on policy. Name calling, jeering, pieces of fucking coal being used by senior Government Ministers as props, to humiliate and denigrate those who don’t agree with them.

The Australian Government is an absolute mess. If it was a company behaving in this manner the board would be chucked out, the C-Suite replaced and the whole sorry exercise would be forgotten as quickly as possible.

As it stands the current mob have defunded programs, defunded social services, defunded renewable energy industries, wiping out our chance to lead the way in renewable energy development. We had so much to gain, but the Australian people fell for fear and the current expectation in the business community of any improvements are next to nill.

The Liberals stood before Australia in both 2013 and 2016 and promised to govern for the people. The lied then as they lie now.

Peta Credlin’s admission on Sky last night proved beyond any reasonable doubt the Liberals don’t care about anyone but themselves and their big business mates. The only people who benefited from the “Great Big Carbon Tax Lie” were the big polluters. The punters – like you and I – were fully compensated for rising costs, we were not out of pocket. The Carbon Tax did not, in any way, affect us.The Liberals fed you gruel and lied to you about the tax; horror stories that would have done Stephen King proud and no one with the ability to do so stood up and called them on their bullshit.

The Liberals fed you gruel and lied to you about the tax; horror stories that would have done Stephen King proud and no one with the ability to do so stood up and called them on their bullshit.

And now here we are. In an alt-truth, fake news reality where someone like Peta Credlin can announce on television, she spearheaded one of the biggest electoral lies in Australia’s history and no one blinks a bloody eye.