Australians have a good bulldust detector. It’s blaring at Albanese and Taylor

Less than two weeks ago, on his first day as opposition leader, Angus Taylor visited a family in Goulburn to discuss the cost of living, their mortgage payments and how hard it was to make ends meet. It was a tried and tested media opportunity, a chance for Australians to see a more relatable opposition leader, but it didn’t really ring true because Taylor’s personal and family wealth have been well documented.

Even those unfamiliar with Taylor’s background may have struggled to buy the everyman pose because, as is widely known, even the lowliest backbencher is paid north of $200,000 a year – before allowances, staff, Comcars, taxpayer-funded flights and more – and is relatively well off.

Similarly, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing criticism for labelling former Australian of the Year Grace Tame “difficult”. Tame fired back that the prime minister was a condescending old man and claimed his crack as a badge of honour. Albanese tried to walk it back, claiming he meant Tame had “had a difficult life”.

Pull the other one, PM. While his comment was inappropriate, it was the attempted clean-up that really missed the mark. From Albanese’s point of view, Tame – once a supporter of his – is difficult.

She is an independent woman who has been outspoken in her support of a Palestinian state, including at protests where she has helped lead calls to “globalise the intifada”, and that has created a political headache for the PM. Rather than trying to play it down, Albanese should have told the truth: something like “Grace and I don’t agree on everything, but I respect her right to passionately disagree with me” would have been much preferable to attempting to brazen his way through and failing.

Australians’ preparedness to swallow the polite lies of politics – to accept that Taylor understands what life is like on struggle street, or that Albanese meant something he had not – is at record lows. If you don’t believe this, have a look at One Nation’s record-high primary vote. There are many, many problems with One Nation but no one ever accused Pauline Hanson of faking that she was once a fish and chip shop owner from Queensland.

The decline in trust in politics and politicians has already been well documented, as has the professionalisation of politics. People are disillusioned with politics because of hypocrisy, untruths and the sense that pollies are rich and out of touch. And at least to some extent they’re right because over at least the past two decades, the composition of people elected to our parliament has changed.

Paul Keating left school at 14 and went on to become prime minister, while John Howard went to Canterbury Boys’ High and became a middling suburban solicitor before entering politics. Such stories are now harder to find.

Once upon a time, men (it was almost always men) would have a successful business career or rise to the top of the union movement before entering politics for a period of public service. That idea seems antiquated now, though Malcolm Turnbull is a recent and honourable exception, having made his fortune well before he entered parliament in 2004.

Today, politicians and political leaders have less and less experience out in the “real world”. There are plenty of politicians who complain long and loud about government spending and wasteful bureaucratic fat cats in Canberra who have no qualms about enjoying the benefits of taxpayer-funded business-class travel, fancy hotels and chauffeur-driven cars. Many have barely had a job outside the political staffer-union-think tank ecosystem before entering parliament.

The hypocrisy is staggering and, even if voters don’t know all the detail, they get it.

The 30-member Labor ministry is a case in point. Just four members have never worked as a political staffer, or for a union, or both. The exceptions are Anne Aly, a former academic, Kristy McBain, though she was the mayor of Bega Valley Shire for four years, Daniel Mulino, an economist who worked as a public servant and served in the Victorian parliament before federal politics, and Malarndirri McCarthy, who was a journalist and then a member of the NT Legislative Assembly before entering federal politics.

For Labor MPs, working for a union or in a political office is both valuable experience and a fast track into politics. And it’s not just Labor. For Coalition MPs in the current shadow ministry, the pathway is not much different.

This brings us back to Angus Taylor, who entered politics in 2013 after a successful and lucrative career in business, and his challenge of being authentic. Though Taylor and Turnbull dislike each other intensely – the former prime minister recently labelled the new opposition leader the best qualified idiot in federal parliament – both were wealthy before entering politics. The decision of both was based in part on their desire to render public service. Yes, both also have healthy egos and desperately want or wanted to be prime minister.

It’s more common today for a former politician to launch a lucrative career after their time in politics has ended, whether as a lobbyist, consultant, ambassador or something else. Christopher Pyne and Joel Fitzgibbon, both former defence ministers turned defence lobbyists, are obvious examples.

Which is exactly as it shouldn’t be.

Taylor is a fourth-generation farmer from a family that settled in the Snowy Mountains in 1909 and which holds significant tracts of farmland in southern NSW. There is no shame in inherited wealth. Much like the bank of mum and dad, while we might mock it, there are few people struggling to buy their first home or raise a family who would knock back help from the preceding generation.

But will Australians vote for Taylor if they see him as an entitled member of the squatocracy? That’s certainly how Labor will attempt to frame him in the months ahead.

Part of Albanese’s success is that Labor framed him in the public’s mind as the kid of a single mum, raised on a housing estate, and who worked hard all his life. The fact that most of that working life was in the Labor Party and union movement is barely mentioned.

Rather than leaning into an unconvincing everyman persona, Taylor should take a step back and own his achievements in business, and his wealth. Yes, he has been fortunate but he also worked hard to achieve his success. There is no shame in that either, and it has the additional benefit of being true.

The alternative is for Taylor to pretend that he is someone he is not, and that is not going to work. Because Australians can spot bullshit a mile away, and they’re fed up with hypocrisy, untruths and out-of-touch politicians.

James Massola is chief political commentator.

Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.