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Abbott's boulevard of broken promises

Gareth Hutchens Published: November 28, 2013 - 11:36AM

Australian politics: full coverage Mark Kenny: Pyne's broken promise set to haunt Abbott Backdown means $2b less for NSW education Pyne pledges $230 as government goes into damage control Betrayal angers school principals
They promised before the election to be a no-surprises government. But since winning power the Abbott government has lengthened its list of broken promises and policy surprises by more than one a week.

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Just two days ago, the Federal Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, performed a brazen policy back-ip on school funding, saying he would no longer accept Labor's funding and overall model despite Tony Abbott making this pre-election promise: ''We will honour the agreements that Labor has entered into. We will match the oers that Labor has made. We will make sure that no school is worse o.'' A few weeks ago, the Coalition's pre-election commitment to ''turn back the boats'' was broken after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison ended a tense stando with Jakarta which was refusing to accept a boatload of asylum seekers - by ordering the boat to be taken to Christmas Island. Last month, Treasurer Joe Hockey said he wanted to increase the debt ceiling from $300 billion to $500 billion. That was after the Coalition attacked the then Labor government's decision in May last year to raise Australia's debt ceiling from $250 billion to $300 billion, which Tony Abbott described at the time as ''really extraordinary''. ''What Joe Hockey is now doing on both the commission of cuts and on the issue of the debt ceiling is a million miles away from the expectations he gave the Australian people before the election,'' Labor nance spokesman Tony Burke said about the Coalition's recent decision to raise the debt limit. Mr Abbott also promised before the election to have a government ''which is transparent and open'', saying ''the last thing we want to do is to hide anything from the Australian people''. Since then, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has implemented a highly restrictive

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regime regarding information on border protection. The Coalition has also surprised voters by abolishing the portfolio of minister for science, sending no minister to climate talks in Poland, and deciding to only have one female cabinet minister. These things appear to y in the face of Mr Abbott's campaign launch pledge: ''We will be a no-surprises, no-excuses government, because you are sick of nasty surprises and lame excuses from people that you have trusted with your future.''
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/abbottsboulevard-of-broken-promises-20131127-2yac4.html

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