Chester Borrows: Let's talk truth, lies and statistics

TRUTH BE TOLD: Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men - "You can't handle the truth."

JACK Nicholson had a famous line in the movie A Few Good Men when he screams at Tom Cruise: "You can't handle the truth!"

People may find it ironic that a politician would write a column about truth, lies and statistics ... maybe it has all been said before. But the realisation that you are being filled with bull-squash by someone you have asked an open question of is just as frustrating as it has ever been.

None of us believe the media unless it fits our view of the world; none of us trust politicians unless they are from the party we voted for; and we accept a bit of gloss on things if it seems to be for our own good.

Has any husband ever truthfully answered the question: "Does my bum look big in this?"

Then there are those folk we don't even expect to tell the whole truth and who full use the leeway they are given as a rite of passage in their occupational or vocational class - second-hand car salesmen; auctioneers; real estate agents; lawyers for the other side (our own lawyers only ever tell the truth, of course); and parents talking about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny. We have all done that.

My current frustration is the spin - spin is close to lying but, generally, not quite - that officials happily trot out when asked serious questions by parliamentarians, and my most recent example was in select committee.

A government agency was in front of the Primary Production Committee, but every answer was parallel with the facts as we rural-based MPs know them to be. The message we get on a daily basis from the rural frontline bore no resemblance to the utopia that the officials told us was the real oil.

It is no wonder then that legislation can only vaguely reflect the environment that it is intended to regulate. The base data is flawed because it is spin and not fact. People in authority working on behalf of the public need to realise that the information they provide as a basis for writing public policy needs to be factual.

This governance business is not a game - bad decisions affect people's lives. It is just as tragic as politicians delaying or refusing to make decisions because to do so would be unpopular and it is too close to an election. Knowing what the real facts are about a government project is just as vital as National Standards in children's learning. If you don't know what you don't know, you'll be bound to repeat a failed performance - failure is failure, and bull-squash is sabotage. Allowing the recipient of spin or lies to fail is criminal.

Knowing people are relying on the truth of the information they provide, public servants should act in the best interests of the public and not themselves or their reputation.

This is not an argument about the pros and cons of policy, as everyone will have different views. But the actual facts on which that policy is made should never be in dispute. They should be identifiable and unequivocal. Knowing what questions to ask is vital to getting the facts - the politics around the policy comes later.

My biggest challenge as your MP is getting facts that are not dripping with faecal matter, and then turning them into good policy enforced by good legislation. Some days it ain't easy.