Prime Minister Scott Morrison has clashed with a teenage journalist in an online interview heavily focused on allegations of lying.
Leonardo Puglisi, who founded 6 News when he was in primary school, grilled the Prime Minster over the allegations on Wednesday night.
Mr Morrison accused “the media” of twisting what he said in relation to visiting the Hillsong Church and repeatedly referring to Sam Dastyari as “Shanghai Sam”.
“They’ve completely taken out of context what I’ve said,” Mr Morrison said.
Alongside the network’s political reporter, Roman Mackinnon, Puglisi pressed the Prime Minister on a litany of alleged lies outlined in an article the Prime Minister laughed off.
“If you’re starting with Crikey and you’re talking about credibility it’s not a good start. I can assert that strongly,” Mr Morrison said.
“Absolutely you can assert it strongly and we’re giving you a platform to assert that,” the teenage host replied.
Mr Morrison also laughed off reference to the ABC’s fact checking of him.
“Australians know that I’m upfront with them and as politicians occasionally you might get the odd fact wrong or the odd figure wrong … that’s all just silly word games,” he said.
“What Australians care about is their job, their national security, they’re not interested in these type of juvenile debates.”
The Prime Minister fielded questions about the federal budget and its impact on the election, which he directed back to national security and defence spending.
Being not old enough to vote, Mr Puglisi asked the Prime Minister if he thought he had won the trust of young people.
Mr Morrison said his government had helped create more jobs for young people and boosted youth mental health spending.
“If you don’t get a job by the time you’re in your sort of early to mid twenties, then the chances of you spending a life dependent on welfare go up like a rocket,” Mr Morrison said.
Puglisi asked if the Prime Minister felt responsible for voters in most states and territories siding with Labor at recent elections, to which he replied, “no”.
Earlier in the day, ahead of the interview going to air, Puglisi told ABC’s The Drum that he had not expected to receive quite the level of pushback from Mr Morrison as he did.
“I don’t think we expected that much pushback however I think we responded well, and it’s not everyday, we do get pushback but not usually from the Prime Minister of Australia,” he said.
