The "moral obligation to lie" in action

National's credibility over its policy direction has again been called into question with the leak of an Insurance Council memo showing that National had agreed to keep some of the details of its ACC policy secret from the public:

The details of the policy have been deliberately kept out of the announcement after consultation with the Insurance Council.

What details? According to the memo's author, things like

"how far the privatisation would go, whether you would have an independent disputes tribunal, what role the ACC would take, whether there would be a Crown entity player like last time ... what your timeframe would be"

Those are pretty important details, and ones National should be being upfront with. But there's an obvious reason for their secrecy: the New Zealand public would react badly to their real plans. Privatisation is as popular as leprosy, and faced with that, National has simply chosen to lie (while making sure that the prime beneficiaries of the policy - insurance companies - are kept well informed). It's a fine example of the belief in a moral obligation to lie in action, and shows precisely why we cannot trust National.