Rudd failing on election promises

Even the Sydney Morning Herald’s political editor Peter Hartcher has acknowledged that the Rudd Government stands to pay a price for its failure to live up to the expectations it built up during the 2007 election campaign.
Unsurprisingly, Hartcher tries to cut the Government a lot of slack. But he cannot escape the conclusion that voters won’t wear the cagey caveats Rudd placed on his promises last November:

“So in the three areas where Rudd promised to try to contain prices, they have, so far, been rising even faster than prices overall. The CPI is bad, but the KPI is worse, running about 40 per cent faster.

“As Opposition leader, Rudd remarked that ‘the statistical averages don’t reflect the day-to-day realities that so many families face’.

“The day-to-day realities, as suggested by the prices of items that Rudd himself nominated, are worse. Accepting Rudd on his own terms, the KPI shows that they are about 40 per cent worse.

“Of course, Rudd is only eight months into a three-year term. It’s utterly unreasonable to expect that he could have any serious impact on such big problems so quickly. Indeed, it is utterly unreasonable to expect that he could have any serious impact at all. The expectation is all of his own making. Rudd now finds himself tossed about on a global tsunami in food and fuel prices, forces beyond the control of any government, with the public expectantly waiting to see how he will bring it under control.

“Much as Howard gave the clear impression at the 2004 election that he would keep interest rates down, so Rudd gave the clear impression at the 2007 election that he would keep prices down.

“Just as Howard’s promises were smart short-term politics that helped him to win re-election, so were Rudd’s to help him to power. And just as Howard’s campaigning on rates came back to haunt him, so has Rudd’s.

“But surely no Australian voter is naive enough to trust a prime minister who promises to control the uncontrollable? Not so. A Nielsen poll showed that Howard’s campaign promise to “keep interest rates low” made 27 per cent of respondents more likely to vote for him in 2004. And a Newspoll last month found that 51 per cent of respondents agreed that Rudd did “make an election promise to keep petrol prices lower”. Some people, many people, do put store by a politician’s promise, even if he does attach careful caveats, and even if it is inherently undeliverable.”

Piers Akerman also writes about growing left wing dissatisfaction with the Rudd Government and comments on the Hartcher column quoted above.