In light of the deficit levy and the PPL levy and the increased Medicare levy to pay for the NDIS and the increased fuel excise and the co-payment for doctors and medications (aka sick tax), I thought it might be interesting to revisit Tony Abbott’s words.

Thanks to the ABC and Crikey. I have also added a few more to their lists.

August 22, 2011: “It is an absolute principle of democracy that governments should not and must not say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards. Nothing could be more calculated to bring our democracy into disrepute and alienate the citizenry of Australia from their government than if governments were to establish by precedent that they could say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards.”

January 31,2013: “So my pledge to you is that I won’t say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards because fibbing your way into office is what’s brought our public life into disrepute.”

August 25, 2013: “We will be a no-surprises, no-excuses government, because you are sick of nasty surprises and lame excuses from people that you have trusted with your future.”

October 28, 2010: “We stand for lower, simpler, fairer taxes, not great big new taxes that damage Australia’s economy, not great big new taxes that are yet another hit on the cost of living of struggling Australian families.”

January 2011: “Why should the Australian people be hit with a levy to meet expenses which a competent, adult, prudent government should be able to cover from the ordinary revenues of government?”

February 10, 2011: “The one thing that [people] will never have to suffer under a Coalition government is an unnecessary new tax, a tax that could easily be replaced by savings found from the budget.”

February 23, 2011: “We honour the victims of the floods by being a competent parliament and a competent government. We do not honour them by imposing an unnecessary new tax.”

May 12 2011: “People can be confident that spending, debt and taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government because we have the record to prove it.”

August 15, 2011: “This is the week in which we will mark the first anniversary of the Prime Minister’s infamous promise to the Australian people before the last election: ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’. This is a promise that will haunt the Prime Minister and the Government every day until their ultimate political death. This Government fundamentally lacks legitimacy and not because it lacks a majority but because it lacks integrity and nothing more highlights the Government’s lack of integrity than this monumental broken promise.”

August 16, 2011: “A very clear message is going out from the Australian people to this government: there can be no tax collection without an election. If this government had any honesty, any decency, that is what we would have: an election now.”

August 16, 2011: “There is one fundamental message that we want to go out from this place to every nook and cranny of our country: There should be no new tax collection without an election.”

August 22, 2011: “I have often said, and members of this House will no doubt hear me say it again, there should be no new tax collection without an election,”

September 14, 2011: “I say to this Prime Minister: There should be no new tax collection without an election.”

November 23, 2011: “This government thinks that somehow you can build prosperity with new taxes. No country ever got rich by increasing taxation. No country ever built a strong economy by clobbering itself with tax after tax after tax.”

November 24, 2011: “Our objective can be stated quite simply and quite clearly. It is lower taxes, better services, more opportunities to work and, above all else, stronger borders.”

March 14, 2012: “What you’ll get under us are tax cuts without new taxes,”

May 10, 2012: People who work hard should not be “hit with higher taxes“.

September 19, 2012: “The time for big-spending, big-taxing, big-fibbing government has gone. We will give the Australian people the decent government they deserve.”

January 2013: “And when this government claims that its attacking middle class welfare, its just attacking the middle class because the family tax benefit and the private health insurance rebate are tax justice for families, not handouts.

May 16, 2013: “We want taxes that are lower, simpler and fairer and will take proposals for further tax reform to the following election,”

Real Solutions pamphlet, 2013: “We pledge to the families of Australia that we will never make your lives harder by imposing unnecessary new taxes.”

Liberal Election Policy 2013: “But only the Coalition can be trusted to actually deliver tax cuts and genuine tax reform that will boost the economy and ease cost‑of‑living pressures for Australian families”

July 8, 2013: “The current government is addicted to regulation. They’ve never seen a problem that they didn’t think a new tax or a new regulation or another bureaucrat could solve.”

August 6, 2013: “Taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government.”

August 9, 2013: “The only party which is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party.”

August 11, 2013: “The only party that will raise taxes after the election is the Labor Party.”

August 15, 2013: “I am determined not to increase the overall tax burden. I am absolutely determined not to increase the overall tax burden on anyone.”

August 15, 2013: “There will be no overall increase in the tax burden whatsoever.”

August 17, 2013: “Now I say the tax burden isn’t going to increase. Well, we are going to abolish the carbon tax, abolish the mining tax, we will reduce the company tax – of course the overall tax burden is going to go down.”

August 18, 2013: “I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that our objective when the fiscal circumstances are right, is to lower all taxes. We want to lower all taxes. We really are the party of lower, simpler, fairer taxes – look at our record in government.”

August 19, 2013: “We’ll build a stronger economy so that everyone can get ahead, and part of building a stronger economy is cutting unnecessary taxes, abolishing unnecessary taxes,”

September 2, 2013: In three years’ time, “because taxes will be lower and regulation reduced, economic growth should be stronger” if the Coalition was elected.

September 5, 2013: “Right now the best thing we can do for our country and ultimately the best thing we can do for people around the world is to strengthen our economy and that means cutting taxes, building the infrastructure of the future, because if tax is lower and infrastructure is better our economy will be more productive and a strong Australia is going to be a much better international citizen than an Australia which can’t really pay its way.”

September 5, 2013: “Economic policy will be geared towards stronger economic growth than it currently is. If you reduce taxes, if you reduce regulation, if you increase productivity, you will get stronger economic growth.”