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Abbott government breaks more promises than it keeps

Jessica Sier and Vanessa Desloires

 The Australian Financial Review has found.
The government has delivered on 13 promises and is making progress on 11 others – but has broken its word on 14 pre-election pledges.
Tony Abbott promised on the eve of last year’s election that there would be “no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS”.
The Abbott government has since proposed changes in all of these areas – except the GST.
The Coalition promised no new or increased taxes, but a deficit levy on higher earners was introduced, as was a plan to restart the indexation of petrol excise.
It promised no adverse changes to superannuation, but it agreed to extend a two-year delay to a rise in the 9.5 per cent superannuation guarantee, as part of a deal to get rid of the mining tax.
Mr Abbott promised no cuts to education, yet slashed billions from school funding over a decade and announced plans to cut 20 per cent of university funding.
The Abbott government also pledged no health cuts, but cut significant planned growth in state government funding for hospitals over the next decade.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has achieved his promise to “stop the boats”, reporting zero boat arrivals in seven out of the eight months this year.
But in July 157 Sri Lankan asylum seekers arrived in Western Australia, a backdown from the pledge not to allow any asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach the mainland. And permanent residency was granted to a 15-year-old Ethiopian stowaway after the Coalition explicitly promised this wouldn’t be an option.

In progress

Of the promises made before the election, 11 are still under way.
Mr Abbott’s signature paid parental leave scheme will not start until 2015 – if it passes the Senate. It has received a chorus of criticism for being too generous.
The government has dropped the income threshold from $150,000 to $100,000 and is in no rush to introduce the legislation.
“The budget is the priority,” Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said in August, when asked if the scheme was being “shelved”. “All our other priorities then will be taken through the parliament in an orderly fashion.”
Jackie Patterson is a working mother in Brisbane and isn’t sure whether this policy will ever see the light of day.
“I don’t think it was an empty promise, but I do think it was used as a big-dollar promise to sway women’s votes, and I think it probably worked,” she said.
The sale of Medibank Private has made some headway, with a prospectus due to be with the regulator by October.
 Eight budgets have been polled since former prime minister John Howard’s tough budget in 1996, and the 2014 budget has been the first one rated by the majority of voters as unfair.