Even before being sworn into office Kevin Rudd is being advised to break his election promises. So far he is showing no sign of doing so. Indeed, he wants to establish Key Performance Indicators for the promises he has already made. Mr Rudd is probably making a rod for his own back, writes Sinclair Davidson.
Promises
Stand by for the discovery of Howard’s black hole
Those in the Labor Party who are hoping that Peter Garrett’s flippant remark about abandoning the cautious promises after victory turns out to be true are likely to be disappointed, writes Richard Farmer.
Political piggy banks: The media adds up the pork barrelling
What do the Coalition and Labor have in their pork-barrelling piggy banks? How much have politicians spent in election promises so far? Crikey intern Alesha Capone compares what the national media have been saying.
An end to big spending
Will we be seeing any more big spending policies? Probably not. There’s a practical reason for that, writes Christian Kerr.
The Daily Verdict: Day 29 and the papers did the PM proud
Policy Speech Day was far and away the Government’s best on the trail since the tax cut promises in its opening salvo. There will be disappointment in the camp at the lack of enthusiasm from the TV networks last night but the foundation is there again on which to try and build a revival, writes Richard Farmer.
Kilgour: Dumb, dumber, downright stupid and Downer
One thing’s for sure. The winner of this election will spend the first year junking a big bunch of spending promises if they are responsible, writes Adam Kilgour.
Not an election promise, just government
An apology to the readers of Crikey is in order. For months now I have been preparing a list of spending proposals, under the generic heading of “The Grass Roots Gravy Train” and calling them election promises. A change of name may be in order, writes Richard Farmer.
Labor’s election promise gravy train
They will be working overtime in the Department of Finance from now until election day attempting to come up with a sensible estimate of what all the election promises of the major parties would cost if they turned out to be of the core variety and the necessary legislation actually got through the Senate.
