Let’s face it, Tony Abbott not Dennis Napthine was just voted out after one term in Victoria. The question that really matters is why? Phillip Coorey of the AFR had a nice piece on the weekend offer:
As the political year draws to a close, Liberals are not panicking but they are scratching their heads as to how it all went wrong so quickly.
…For the Abbott government the culprit is the May budget, a document so laden with broken promises, surprises and excuses and, crucially, perceived as unfair, it has sent the government reeling in the polls and crippled its credibility. The impact has been more marked because, in opposition, Abbott had campaigned on trust more than anything else. He said the trust deficit, created by former prime minister Gillard’s broken promise on the carbon tax, was even larger than the fiscal deficit.