In a broad sense, Australia was founded on a lie, the lie of terra nullius, of a vast empty land, quietly and proudly awaiting discovery. Contemporary Australia inherits this lie daily, it lives with it, savours it, experiences it as a quality of the light, a quality of the air, as well as an ongoing socio/cultural/economic reality. In addition, contemporary Australia has also become accustomed to the political lie. Since the 2001 Tampa and Children Overboard scandals and the ensuing federal election, the Howard Government has proven that it is possible to lie and still receive the trust of the nation. In such a scenario, belief in the veracity or otherwise of the government’s public statements becomes occluded by issues held by the voting public to be larger and more important than whether a minister tells the truth or not. How do notions of ‘trust’ come to occlude notions of ‘truth’? How is it possible to trust someone who lies to you – indeed, trust someone because they lied, because they had the conviction to lie to you? This can only happen when the liar is believed to uphold certain absolute responsibilities at the expense of the responsibility to truthfulness. This paper will examine this paradox in terms of the Howard Government’s relation to the aporia of responsibility as it is understood in deconstructive thought.