Break tax promises and you break the trust of the electorate, and once trust is gone there is no road back.
In allowing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor to renege on their, “I’m a man of my word,” tax promise the Coalition has conceded an election victory strategy as they too break their solemn promise to the electorate.
Former U.S. President George Bush Snr. learned the lesson.
Having campaigned on no tax increases with his bold and unequivocal statement, “read my lips,” there was no recovery after he increased taxes.
He lost the presidency after his first term, having enjoyed public support hardly ever experienced by a president of the United States.
In Australia, there are two other stark examples.
Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating, desperate to unravel Opposition Leader John Hewson’s bold economic plan, legislated tax cuts before the election announcing them as “L-A-W law” tax cuts.
They were legislated and ready to go.
Having won the unwinnable election with this strategy he promptly repealed L-A-W law. There was no road back. Every promise made was treated cynically by the electorate. The trust had gone. A solemn promise had been casually discarded like a soiled tissue.
Fast forward to more recent times and Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard solemnly declared, “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.”
In desperation to form a government after the election she hooked up with the Greens Party. Their price was a carbon tax. Despite all the pleading that she had no choice, Prime Minister Gillard unleashed a torrent of upset which saw Labor swept from office at the next election.
Turning to the most recent events in Canberra, Labor’s about-face on their, “I’m a man of my word,” tax cuts provided an opportunity for the opposition to take the high moral ground, and remind people of the broken promise while also jogging people’s memories that the Coalition are the lower tax alternative.
Opinion polling suggested support for Labor breaking its tax promise.
Like with all polling it depends on the question asked. The outcome may have been different if the question posed dealt with the importance of the government maintaining faith by keeping election promises.
A day-in and day-out reminder that the prime minister was not a man of his word, would have been a devastating parliamentary tactic based on objective evidence.
To forego this advantage presented on a platter and tied up with a ribbon, will leave many a Coalition supporter pondering both the principle and tactics adopted.
Fresh and upbeat from his courageous and highly successful campaign in opposing The Voice referendum, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton should have capitalised on the advantage with a similarly strong principled position, insisting the government honour its commitments, commitments which were repeated some 60 times throughout the election campaign.
Breaking the locked-in promise is a political death sentence. Like The Voice, the polls can be shifted through articulating a coherent narrative. The tax issue needed the same strong leadership and instinct, over a fleeting poll result which was undoubtedly be shifted.
For opposition supporters wanting a strategy to win back the Teal seats, it has just been squandered. These high-income electorates will now have no reason to revert to their traditional choice of the Liberal Party.
The political graveyard has an unenviable display of tombstones with the epitaph—here lies another broken tax promise. Labor’s and Mr. Albanese’s should have been the next.
