That's exactly what they did! Based on the information they had at the time, they made promises they thought they were going to be able to keep. Truth is, exactly how bad the situation was/is was very well hidden by the ALP.
You're wrong there. This is the first step in a process that will bring the ridiculous waste and debt back under control. The flow on effect will mean things look VERY VERY good coming polling day in 2016. And BS won't have anything of substance to offer other than a track record of waste, record debt and incompetence.
Sorry, Rajesh, but no.
I'm from your side of the political fence, but the undertakings (ie promises) Abbott made were bloody stupid. He might, in all good conscience, have WANTED to honour them, but he had to know that his promises were simply impossible to keep. He wanted to abolish at least two taxes, he said he would honour the NDIS and Gonski for at least four years, he wanted to introduce a truly idiotic and extremely expensive PPL scheme, he said there would be no new taxes, then tried the most implausible explanation that the high income levy was not a new tax......the list of dumbness is pretty long and it casts doubts in many minds (I suspect more than just a few Coalition supporters too) about his capacity to lead.
Abbott didn't have to make those promises. The Labor/Greens were so badly on the nose, that drover's dog could have won the election just by barking. Instead, Abbott maintained his three key mantra which found resonance with the electorate, then made all those other promises which Blind Freddy knew were impossible to achieve.
So, why did we Conservative voters still vote for him?
Well, speaking for myself, I knew he couldn't do what he promised, but I paid no attention to his promises anyway - I never do at election time. I've seen too much pork-barrelling over the years to give any of it credence these days. I voted for the party that had a history of economic responsibility, and which I knew WOULD stem the flow of asylum seekers. I couldn't believe the sheer incompetence and arrogance of the Gillard government (and Rudd's was no better) and that arrogance is still present with some of the former Ministers who somehow managed to hold their seats in the last election. I also hated the way the unions had managed to re-establish themselves under Gillard's watch and were starting to flex their muscles again.
So far as the budget goes, I suspect that Shorten, the Greens and the PUP will do all they can to obstruct as many policies as they can for political gain, knowing that the budget is deeply unpopular. They will also know that by blocking the budget key points, the government is faced with only two options - go back to the drawing board and come up with a mini-budget that will really be a heavily revised major budget, or call a double dissolution. Abbott threatened to call a DD if the Carbon Tax was blocked, and might even have still thought that way until budget week. Now I reckon he would be very unwilling to take that option, knowing that he and the Government are so unpopular.
Hard work by Coalition members trying to convince the electorate won't be very successful, because so many low income people seem to think that they are carrying more than their fair share of the load, even if that isn't the case. As I have said previously, Abbott has dug a very deep hole for himself, by working the "Gillard Lie" topic so hard for so long, then making unsustainable promises and breaking so many of them in such a short time. I think his credibility is shot to bits and I can see the party being forced to seriously consider a new leader before the next election, if his personal levels of popularity don't pick up as well as the party's.