Hewsons lesson for Abbott - lie

I didn't know, but it turns out Abbott was John Hewson's understudy. Hewson lost the unlosable election in the 19's after detailing to the public what he was going to do if he won office. Called "Fightback" for the campaign, it soon became known in the public domain as "Frightpack", and was pretty much in line with what Abbott is trying to do now but didn't tell us before the election. Peter Hartcher writes:

The cruel hoax on the public of undeliverable election promises “has got worse in the last 15 or 20 years”. 

That timing is not coincidental. It’s 21 years since Hewson lost the so-called “unloseable election” against an unpopular Paul Keating. 

The reason he lost was his complete honesty with the electorate. His detailed, 650-page manifesto “Fightback!” was a program of radical reform, honestly set forth. 

Keating exploited it to wage a mighty scare campaign, with dishonest promises including the so-called L-A-W tax cuts that he dumped after winning power. 

Fightback! is often called the longest suicide note in political history. It was also the last time that a political leader was rash enough to level with the Australian people. The 650 pages of detail is a stark contrast to the glossy 40-page pamphlet put out by Abbott. 

Indeed, it was Hewson’s negative model of politics – how to lose an election by telling the people the truth – that had a greater impact on his apprentice than any of his positive lessons. Read more

Which raises an interesting point in the mind of Abbott. So, Abbott see's his mentor Hewson go down in flames and lose the election because the public were horrified of his agenda for Australia. What then does Abbott take as a lesson from this?

Does he adjust his policies to be more in line with public opinion and expectation? No. He instead decides that the best way to go if ever he was in Hewson's situation, would be to keep his extremist policies secret from the public until after he gets elected. This is obvious because it's exactly what he did, unveiling them for all to see in the budget. Unfortunately the public had no chance to vote on this Frightpack as they did with Hewson.

So it was lies plotted from the very beginning. Deception. Lying on a scale never before seen in Australian politics. A contempt for Australians themselves. An insult to their intelligence. 

Just a note for interest, I don't accept that Keating lied about the L.A.W. tax cuts. He did not can the tax cuts after gaining office, he put them into a policy where they would be used to increase the superannuation contribution, the gov matching what was contributed by workers. If that had of gone through the superanuation contributions would have been not 9% as they have been for zonks, but 12% from about the late '90's or so I guess. Howard came into power after beating Keating in the next election and canned the superannuation policy that Keating had set up using his promised tax cuts. At the time I remember reading in the newspaper that the move would cost about $100,000 for the final retirement balance worked over a lifetime.