If you wanted to find a place on the web dedicated to compiling a list of the great lies of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, then you probably would have been confronted with even more lies.
In May this year, on the night of the federal budget and the official start of Treasurer Joe Hockey’s crusade against “the age of entitlement”, the Liberal party registered the domain names abbottlies.com.au and abbottlies.net.au, in an apparent attempt to pre-empt the inevitable.
As of last night, if you tried to visit either site you would have been re-directed to the official lies – the Liberal party’s official website, featuring rolling banner ads of a smiling Joe Hockey and a squinting Abbott.
The sites were no longer re-directing this morning – overnight, someone from the Liberal Party probably read a tweet from Opposition leader Bill Shorten yesterday, which seized on the Liberal gaffe, posting on twitter “no matter if you visit abbottlies.com.au or abbottslies.com.au, all you’ll get is @TonyAbbottMHR’s lies”.
“On the very night when Tony Abbott was breaking all his promises, the Liberal party was buying these websites,” Shorten told the Guardian.
But be careful what you google, because you might end up getting Labor spin instead.
Abbottlies.com.au and abbotslies.com was registered by the Labor party last week as Shorten launched a five-week campaign to mark Tony Abbott’s anniversary in office, promising to unveil a “lie a day”.
The site is still not up this morning. But whether its abbottlies.com.au or the more grammatically pleasant abbottslies.com.au, you’re still likely to be confronted with spin… and more lies.
If you want a one-stop shop dedicated to uncovering the lies of politicians, maybe it’s better to stick to New Matilda. Or perhaps wait for abbottlies.com to come out – neither the Labor nor the Liberal party were quick enough to register the international variation on the domain.
It’s been snapped up by a Queensland company called Swift Trading. Watch and wait.
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