Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was only earlier this year that Mr Abbott admitted, Senator Cash, that what he said could not always be trusted, that the Australian people should only put their faith in what he had actually put in writing. Now Mr Abbott has shown that, even when he has signed up to something in writing, he cannot be trusted to hold true to that agreement. I daresay there are some quite decent Liberal members who would privately be quite concerned that their leader could rat on an agreement in such an arrogant manner.

In a country that has been built on a handshake, on the principle that a man’s word is his bond, Mr Abbott has shown that his words mean nothing and his signature even less.