The man simply has no moral compass and that will be his downfall.
I can recall that, whilst he was the then Minister for Health, he attended a public forum to justify the Government’s position on euthanasia, which was at the time inconsistent with the wishes of the majority of the pollution; and still is. Now can’t recall his exact response, but I can most certainly recall its substance and context.
What we (the plebs) want is only relevant for the purposes of formulating policy for an election, and once an election has been concluded, it falls to those elected, irrespective of the promises made or the expectations created, to govern in the manner that they (the politicians) believe to be in the national interest. That is, promises mean nothing and mandates are irrelevant and this was argument also used to justify our involvement in Iraq and the introduction of such memorable legislation as Work Choices.
But when the Libs lost government, he had a complete change of heart. Now a promise were sacrosanct, and mandates mandatory. For instance I can still recall the reasons given for his refusal to allow a conscience vote on amendments to the Marriage Act – ‘It has never been put to the people at an election, there is therefore no mandate, and therefore I can’t allow my party to vote to change it’. In fact, during that period he went so far as say ‘that a Government which breaks their promises, or acts in the absence of a mandate is politically corrupt and has lost the moral right to govern’.
So now, that we are back in Government, we feel safe to return to the way things were when we were last in Government, in the hope that what happened in the first year will be all forgotten by the fourth. Think again. Keating never recovered from his ‘these tax cuts are law' promise. Nor will this lot.
