Abbott's first broken promise

Tony Abbott has released a little video clip to feed the media this week giving us another one of his golden gem snappy slogans:

“This week I will be introducing the carbon tax repeal legislation. It is our bill to help reduce your bills.”

Now the Coalition in its election policy statement said that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would set up a special unit (The crazy repeal price bonanza! September 12) that would:  

“...monitor consumer prices across all sectors of the economy. It will ensure that consumers and businesses receive the direct savings benefit on their electricity, gas and supermarket bills when the carbon tax is repealed.”

Note that I’ve highlighted supermarket bills as part of this Coalition policy commitment.

Now below is an extract of the actual legislative repeal bill that is supposed to reduce our bills (see page 71). Note that a corporation can be pursued by the ACCC for engaging in price exploitation if, and only if it makes what is entitled a ‘regulated supply’.

So what is a 'regulated supply'?

On page 70 of the repeal bill it tells us:

Curiously, there is no mention of anything I saw on the Coles supermarket shelves when I did my shopping yesterday.

Also, the Coalition told us the carbon price was going to drive up the cost of building a new home by $5000. That almost completely wipes away the first home owners grant. Surely this $5000 increase would warrant adding housing construction to the regulated list?

Now, it is possible that under point (e) the government could add additional goods to the regulated supply list. But given how much emphasis Abbott placed on the carbon price driving up the cost of supermarket shopping, and the Coalition's explicit promise to reduce supermarket bills, it is rather odd that no supermarket item at all managed to make the list on first pass.

It all leads you to wonder, could this repeal bill be the Abbott’s government’s first broken promise?