Some advice for Bill Shorten's budget reply speech

There is only one thing Bill Shorten need concentrate on during his budget reply speech.

He needs to hammer home that Abbott won the election by fraud. He comprehensively lied to get elected. This was no ‘broken commitment’ because of changed circumstances. His statements weren’t vague, they weren’t qualified. He intentionally deceived people in order to win power.

That should not be tolerated, let alone rewarded.

In many ways the merits or otherwise of the actual budget measures are irrelevant, because they are not what the electorate signed up for.

I, like many, find some of the announced measures grossly unfair, badly targeted and unnecessary. However if the majority decide that’s the sort of Australia they want, then that is their democratic right. But this is not what the majority decided. They weren’t told of the Government’s intentions. Rather they were assured of the exact opposite.

Abbott has fundamentally broken his contract with Australians. Not a minor breach mind you, rather he has trashed every substantive clause. It goes well beyond any previous Government’s supposed misdemeanours, even the famous ‘core and non-core’ promises of John Howard.

It is fraud, pure and simple.

Abbott is saying their first budget is ‘fundamentally honest’. No it’s not. What does that mean anyway? That it’s honest at the core but dishonest around the edges? It’s all spin and more lies. Abbott is a pathological liar and most of his front bench are following in his footsteps.

If politicians can lie at this monumental level with impunity and get away with it there is no hope for our democracy.

So Mr Shorten, don’t waffle around about the hurt to the battlers, the working mums & dads, the sick, the old and the unemployed. Ignore the hypocrisy of tax breaks for polluters & miners while increasing taxes for the masses. Forget about the gutting of our health system and the largess of the paid parental scheme.

Those discussions can be had in the ensuing weeks and months.

For now, concentrate on the lies and the fraud. Tell people that Tony Abbott and his LNP have comprehensively and intentionally deceived Australians and that they should not be prepared to accept it.

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Watch Tony Abbott lying (with thanks to @PhonyTonyAbbott)

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