Mandate for Everything?

Click to enlarge

The federal Liberals need to be a bit careful how they use their victory in the election.

Malcolm Turnbull, Communications Minister designate, argues that because the NBN was an election issue the new government has a mandate to introduce its version. He, therefore, chooses to brush aside a 200,000-signature petition.

The reality, of course, is that an unknown number of people voted Liberal (or National) despite their broadband policy - they might have done so because they supported, on balance, more of the LNP policies than Labor policies or , simply, because they were fed up with the in-fighting of the ALP.

A responsible government would at least seek some more information on what people really want on an issue as specific as the NBN. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

The downside (and it is a potentially huge downside) of the 'mandate' argument for the Liberals is that it applies to each and every one on the promises they made during the election. They can't pick and choose which promises to keep and which to abandon, if they argue that anything they said during the election campaign constitutes their mandate.