Abbott is the one who put the elephant in the room. So he’s really has no one, but himself, to blame for its existence.
Before the last election, when it came to election promises, the expectation was they were given in good faith, on the understanding that sometimes, things happens, which means they can’t be kept. As to mandates, the expectation was that Governments would limit themselves to what they had a mandate to do (express or implied), but again, on the understanding that sometimes, things happens which requires the Government to act in the absence of one. It then was then up to the electorate, at the next election, to decide the bona fides o the explanations given. These were norms accepted by all sides of politics, because all sides benefited from them, and they are the norms which the Abbott government wants it actions to be measured now.
So where’s the Elephant? During his last term in opposition, he, (Abbott), abandoned these norms. Instead from that point onwards promises became sacrosanct and incapable of being being broken irrespective of any change in circumstance. Now governments were bound by mandates or the absence thereof. Then he put the final nail in his own coffin by saying any Government which beaks It’s promises or introduced or amended legislation without a mandate was morally corrupt and therefore had right to govern.
So what happening now. He’s simply being measured against a yardstick of his own creation.
