Labor's broken promises have spurred a flurry of the tired old claim that all politicians are liars. That was not my experience. Politicians are among the most scrutinised people in any workforce. Their movements and utterances get recorded and stored for later use by a media hungry to catch them out.

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Liars are found in every occupation, schoolyard, sporting teams and more. They are not, however, the majority in those occupations or in politics. Actually, there's a group who leave almost every other occupation for dead. We'll come to them.

Nonetheless, that all politicians are liars it is a popular line. It gets a laugh and so people with little wit can use it as a standby. It has a ring of credibility to it because of the enormous publicity that follows when a government breaks a promise or a politician is caught out, in fact, lying.

But loads of publicity does not mean the percentage of liars is higher than you might find in other occupations. Good local members put a lot at risk to get into parliament. Most work hard in personally rewarding, useful but thankless committee work and in their electorates. It's just a cheap shot by people with little depth.

The example most popular in the media used to be John Howard responding to the question of whether he would rule out introducing a GST if elected. He subsequently asked Australians at an election to endorse one. They did. Labor's about-face on tax issues may now supersede that example because, unlike Howard, they are not asking permission to change.

"Will you rule out ever ..." has to be the stupidest question that is asked of so many politicians. It usually relates to whether the person will challenge for the leadership, or whether they'd support someone else challenging, or will they guarantee always supporting the current leader. Or it might be, as in Labor's current woes ruling out a policy initiative.

Journalists will hide behind the line that the public is entitled to know. In the case of leadership issues it's just a rubbish claim. If Labor is having a leadership brawl I'm not entitled to know what the players think or are planning. It might be interesting but as the public we are not 'entitled' to know. Journalists just want a story the political junkies and the inquisitive will read. And sometimes they are acting as players feeding truth and rumour into the melting pot. Perhaps to help someone they like or disadvantage........

© Canberra Times