Hi Alan,

We wont be side tracked by little red hearings like:
*What about John Howard...*
*What about Tony Abbot...*
*What about the Tooth Fairy...*

The question here is did Julia lie?
That others *might* have lied too does not excuse her.

You turn things inside out in your endeavour to write an apologia for her : <<promises stymied by factors beyond the control of the promisor>>
This might have been true if she had a carbon tax on the table but had not been able to get it through.
But in reality it was the reverse, there was no carbon tax on the table and she decided to invent it.

It was a question of integrity –she had a clear choice
i) Whether she held foremost a commitment made to the Australian electorate , or
ii) Whether she held foremost her status as PM.

Guess what she chose?

Marcus Junius Brutus might have said: “ not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more”

Marcus Brutus Gillard demonstrated she loved playing Caesar
(forgive me noble Caesar for associating you with Gillard) more than she loved Rome.

Correction

We wont be side tracked by little red hearings like...
S/B
We wont be side tracked by little red HERRINGS like...

Good morning all,

“Are these promises given knowing full well they won't be delivered because of extenuating circumstances? Of course they are.”

How do you know, Jayb? Pretty sure that’s not correct. Just look at the grief it has caused.

Regarding broken promises, Jayb, Raycom and SPQR, try this:

All parties have made promises they have not delivered. The question must be: Why not?

In the UK now there is a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Many Government programs are the direct opposite of what the Conservatives promised, and many are the opposite of what the LibDems promised.

But the Poms don’t have their knickers in a twist over this. They understand neither party won an outright majority. So neither side can expect to deliver everything they promised. There must be give-and-take.

Many here in Europe find the labelling of your PM as Ju-Liar quite hilarious.

She promised a cap-and-trade scheme rather than a carbon tax before the election. Had she won a majority, that’s what would have been delivered. In fact, that is still Labor policy – which observers expect her to deliver if and when Labor gets a majority.

But she didn’t win a majority in 2010. Hence several of her policies had to be abandonned. That’s how democracy works. Everywhere.

Yes, it is a broken promise. No question. But it was broken because of the deal brokered with those ornery Greens and independents.

In contrast, John Howard said “there would be no GST never, ever” and then decided to restore the GST to his party’s platform soon after. What forced him to abandon his earlier commitment? Absolutely nothing. It was a blatant change of position which was not forced on him by any external factors whatsoever.

See the difference?

Now, direct lies – saying something is true which you know to be false – is another moral category altogether.

Hi Keith,

The election is still too far away for poll numbers to matter much. Did you see Ms Gillard is now ahead of Mr Abbott as preferred prime minister?

Did you note the trend?

Cheers, AA

AA: All parties have made promises they have not delivered. The question must be: Why not?

I say again. These promises given knowing full well they won't be delivered because of extenuating circumstances.

Let me get this straight AA. I was encompassing all Political Parties anywhere in the world in that statement. I have no affiliation, nor love of any Political Party.

Some Political promises that are made are just plain crap. Our Job is to sort the wheat from the chaff around the time of Elections. As you should know there is a lot more chaff than wheat. All Parties are guilty of deception & sleight of hand, without exception.

Getting you knickers in a knot because of one party or another doesn't solve the problem of political honesty. People have to hold Politicians accountable regardless of their valued Party or affiliations.

I do my bit occasionally. If I receive a reply that is more than two paragraph long I know it's Political claptrap & I tell them so.