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.
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.
I voted for the party that had a history of economic responsibility.
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.
Well said, totally agree.
Firstly, these promises were massive. Even with adding new taxes and not abolishing the existing Carbon/Mining Taxes this would have been a huge feat. A feat that we know now is virtually impossible within the span of lets say two terms.
Secondly, why did they promise it? I think the last ditch effort by Rudd really spooked them. Liberals really shouldve held off though. Rudd has strong initial polling but 2 months later he was in the gutter again. They promised the world far to early and got caught out. Dumb mistake, I think Labor could even chalk up a small victory on that one. They bluffed the Liberals pretty big.
I also voted for economic responsibility. I think both governments have their place. Labor is good at spending, Liberals are good at saving. Do I think Labor did a good job of spending during their first term? Sure, they put cash back into the public hands and did their jobs, but they didnt have the Liberal sensibilities to a) execute a good idea and b) know when it was time to start saving again.
Having a good idea is only a small fraction of the equation, executing is massive. We saw failed execution in almost every single policy/scheme from Labor.
We are now in a period where we need financial responsibility and stability. We have a resource sector that is slowing, manufactoring industry that is building its own coffins and an aging population that cannot be propped up by this generation of youth.
As I said earlier, I bet Liberals are really regretting hammering that Juliar nail home now. I think theres a fundamental difference between breaking a promise and lieing. Will the electorate make that distinction, no. Was the Carbon Tax a lie? Lets be honest with ourselves, it was probably an agreement after the fact from a minority party and Labor needed to implement it to cling onto power and thus a broken promise rather than a lie.
I think its too soon to be calling for a new leader, I really loathe this idea of interchangeable spokesmen. We saw how utterly cancerous it was for Labor. The ONLY person I can see being an alternate leader is Malcom Turnbull. I think enough time has passed for the public to forget his lapse in judgement and the hatred of Tony Abbott driven by minority groups and social media is spreading (as we knew it would).
Still, whats the best way to implement a leadership change? Youd wanna head into the elction with the new leader, but dont want it to appear as a knifing. Tony Abbott retiring? Not sure.
