The most memorable times politicians have tried to wriggle out of their election promises

TONY Abbott is in the middle of his ‘Gillard moment’, but he’s far from the first Australian politician to be caught out. Here’s the hall of shame.

A matter of trust … Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

HOW much is a promise from a politician worth?

Tony Abbott was swept to the prime ministership last year after promising that he would cut taxes and that his would be a government you could trust, a government with “no surprises”.

But he’s already been accused of stretching the friendship with voters, with the deficit tax that was designed to plug holes in the budget.

Cabinet is set to endorse a watered-down version of the deeply unpopular tax when it meets in Canberra today, pared back to apply only to those earning more than $150,000 a year.

The Abbott Government copped a caning in this week’s Newspoll, with support for the Coalition at its lowest level in nearly four years.

The mooted deficit reduction levy is likely to have fed into the government’s slump in support, with another poll showing 72 per cent of those surveyed saw the tax hit a broken promise.

But Abbott is not the first prime minister to wriggle out of what were once iron-clad commitments. Here are some of the most credibility-stretching ways pollies have tried to spin their way out of their promises.

1. NEVER SAY NEVER

A good tip for prospective politicians would probably be to never rule anything out definitively. But, we pesky journos rarely let pollies get way with that. Asked in 1995 if there was any chance he would introduce a goods and services tax, then-Opposition Leader John Howard said: “Never ever. It’s dead. It was killed by voters at the last election.” By 1999, and after nine days of torturous negations with the Democrats, Australia had a GST.

Former Prime Minister John Howard. Picture: David Caird.

2. HARDCORE NON-CORE PROMISES

This one’s a doozy: core and non-core promises. It’s the get-out-of-jail-free card that has now become part of the political lexicon. Here’s how it worked. When Liberal Prime Minister John Howard won office in 1996 he promised to retain many of the social policies of the Keating Government that he had vanquished. Howard’s first horror budget — which analysts say Treasurer Joe Hockey will emulate when he hands down his first budget next week — cut funding to higher education, labour market programs and the ABC, despite a promise not to. Howard justified this by saying he would keep his “core” promises, sidestepping criticism by implying that the rest of his commitments were “non-core” and didn’t count.

3. “THERE WILL BE NO CARBON TAX UNDER THE GOVERNMENT I LEAD”

These are the words that came back to haunt Julia Gillard. Speaking to Channel Ten before the 2010 election, then-Prime Minister Gillard categorically ruled out a carbon tax, only to implement one soon after re-election as part of a deal with the Greens. Then opposition leader Tony Abbott dined out on the sound bite for the next three years. The government tried its darnedest to say that the scheme was not a tax but a “price on carbon”, but the damage was done. Abbott redefined the political discussion as one centred on trust, and voter sentiment turned savagely against Labor.

Here to help … Kevin Rudd.

4. I WON’T RUN AGAIN — PROMISE!

During Julia Gillard’s prime ministership in 2013, Kevin Rudd had a habit of popping up in front of the media at the worst possible times for Gillard and declaring that he was simply out and about supporting the government. He said numerous times that he was definitely not interested in the Labor leadership but everyone in Canberra (well, let’s face it — everyone in Australia) knew this was more than a little disingenuous. After a failed leadership tilt in March of that year, Rudd said: “There are no circumstances under which I will return to the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in the future.” In June, he gave himself more wriggle room, saying “I don’t believe there are any circumstances in which that will occur”. Five days later, he had successfully wrested back the leadership from Gillard.

A matter of trust … Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

5. RELAX, GUYS! IT’S ONLY TEMPORARY

For a pollie who built his victory on exploiting the lack of trust voters had in Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, this is flying close to the wind. The Coalition Government has indicated that a deficit reduction levy will be included in next week’s federal budget. Abbott was unequivocal before the election that there would be no new taxes and, as a result, even columnists usually supportive of Abbott, such as Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine, have smashed the deficit tax as his “Gillard moment”. On radio last week, Mr Abbott tried to argue that the levy was not a tax because it was only temporary. “I think if there was a permanent increase in taxation that would certainly be inconsistent with the sort of things that were said before the election,” he said. “When you are in a difficult position there needs to be some short-term pain for some lasting gain.” The polls suggest that no one is buying that line.

Originally published as The most memorable times politicians have tried to wriggle out of their election promises