There will be no rhetoric under any post I write!

And so it was that the anniversary of the infamous "There will be no Carbon Tax under the government I lead" came and went, with the customary fanfare of an angry rally at Parliament House. There were passionate speeches, minor celebrities, metaphorical rock music and, of course, an assortment of placards and banners sporting uncomplimentary photos and slogans aimed at the PM and her puppet master in Bob Brown. While the protest was good to see, it got me thinking about something else beside the Carbon Tax its organisers are hoping to sink: the various one-liners which politicians say that, in hindsight, they probably wish they could retract...

"In 1990 no Australia child will be living in poverty." This statement by Bob Hawke, made in 1987, could be said to be one of the most stupid things any politician has ever said. The statement gives up two things that a politician should never associate themselves with: concrete deliverables and a set timeline. Bob left himself no wriggle room to weasel his way out of what was said without needing to perform a humiliating back-flip.

"Climate change is the great moral challenge of our generation." The phrase which brought K-Rudd down? The simple fact is that you cannot make a statement such as this and then jettison your core policy - that which you have staked your political life on - at the first sign of bad polls. That isn't a conviction politician, it is an electoral coward who is addicted to sky-high polls results! Australian's are a smart bunch and they know what political populism is, and they don't care for it. Once Kev abandoned ship on his ETS, the electorate became disillusioned and didn't quite know what he stood for. In political-speak, he ruined his own narrative.

"There will be no Carbon Tax under the government I lead." Now we all know and accept that politicians lie. Usually they are little fibs that can be swept under the carpet or forgiven when the next round of tax cuts are released, but never before has such a blatant lie been told by a Prime Minister of Australia. Quite frankly I think that such a wilful act of betrayal sullies the good nature of the office of Prime Minister of this great nation. It is absolutely disgraceful and goes against all the values and attitudes that we hold dear here in Australia. I would argue that while most people don't agree with the Carbon Tax, as a policy, the anger that this debate has generated is primarily from such outrages deceit. After knifing Kevin Rudd, Gillard proceed to knife the rest of the country...

The anger in the community will not dissipate as quickly as Gillard had hoped, if at all. The fine people of this country do not like being made the fool and will undoubtedly punish the ALP severely at the next election. The Independents propping up this farcical excuse for a government will be electorally obliterated by their conservative constituents for their betrayal of their core beliefs for mere personal political gain. It will be interesting to see how the Greens come out of all this. I suspect that they will do quite well, emerging from this electoral bloodbath in an even stronger position by leeching votes off of Labor's Left as the ALP flails about in the Centre. But that is a discussion for another day...