Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been grilled by a teenage journalist about his “lies and falsehoods”, which sparked criticism of some media organisations.
Leonardo Puglisi, who founded 6 News when he was in primary school, spent much of his interview with the Prime Minister on Wednesday night discussing allegations of lying.
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 whxjmtzywat I’ve said,” Mr Morrison said.
Puglisi went on to quote a Crikey article titled ‘A Dossier of Lies’ – detailing 50 times Mr Morrison “lied” while in public office.
Mr Morrison called into question Crikey’s credibility, saying “I can assert that strongly”.
The Prime Minister also laughed off reference to the ABC’s fact checking of him, saying things he’d said had been taken out of context.
Puglisi doubled down, asking: “You don’t think Australians are interested if their leader tells the truth or not?”
“They’re quoted out of context. They pursue a line they’ve been pursuing for some time,” Mr Morrison responded.
“I’m upfront with the Australian people.”
Mr Morrison said Labor had “peddled” a lot of the claims.
“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 also 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.
