PM faces punishment by deceived voters

ANNA Bligh made no mention of her intention to sell $15 billion of state-owned assets at the 2009 election, yet that is exactly what she did in Labor's final term.

On Saturday, voters registered their displeasure, reducing Queensland Labor to a rump.

At the 2010 federal election, Julia Gillard pledged "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead", yet last year she passed one through parliament and this year it takes effect.

The parallels are obvious and, unless something dramatically changes when the Prime Minister goes to the polls, they appear likely to add up to a federal replay of what we just saw in Queensland. Voters don't like being deceived.

The crushing defeat Labor suffered in Queensland has further federal implications, even if federal issues didn't cause the rout. Organisationally, the federal Labor Party now has fewer resources at the state level in Queensland to help Gillard manufacture an unlikely victory. Already federal Labor has a reduced representation in Queensland of eight lower house MPs and five senators following the 2010 election.

A further implication from the Queensland result is just how loaded against incumbents the current electoral climate is. Cost-of-living pressures are front and centre, and there is little that cash-strapped governments can do. .

For Gillard, cost-of-living issues will be even more prevalent federally than they have been in recent state election campaigns, despite state governments being largely responsible for service delivery.

That's because she is introducing a price on carbon. Whether the government's compensation package reduces that burden and whether Tony Abbott overstates the impact it will have on prices, it will be seen as a cost-of-living impost right at a time when people can least afford it. And it's a broken promise.

Labor has long argued that once the carbon tax is implemented and the sky doesn't fall in, people will start to see the Opposition Leader's scare campaign as disingenuous. But that belies the reality that cost-of-living pressures will remain.

Abbott looks like catching the ear of the public as he continues to question why the PM is burdening them with a new tax designed to save the environment right when they are feeling the pinch financially. Especially as it is a broken promise to boot.