Labor's 'promises' are rather slippery, to say the least — pinning down exactly what it will do is a bit like trying to nail jelly to a wall.
Dairy deregulation: Labor will not re-regulate the industry. A Beazley government would review the Dairy Regional Assistance Package so that priority was given to projects that directly assisted people who had lost jobs or income as a result of deregulation. Meantime, Beazley has called on the federal government to call a summit of all stakeholders.
School funding: Labor allowed the federal government to pass its $22 billion school funding package which privileges private religious schools. A Beazley government would continue funding private schools.
Telstra privatisation: While Beazley has ruled out any further privatisation of Telstra, he has also ruled out re-nationalising Telstra. He hasn't made any comment on an internal ALP discussion about the possibility of allowing "non-core" Telstra functions to be sold off while keeping "core" Telstra functions in public ownership.
National competition policy: Labor has sought to slither out of responsibility for introducing competition policy in the first place. Beazley told Radio 2UE on February 16 that Labor supports the deregulation of electricity but not the outsourcing of road-building contracts. A Labor government would, he said, introduce a "meaningful public interest test", but hasn't defined what "meaningful" means.
Banks: A Labor government will bring banks together to establish a social charter of community obligations. Such a charter will not oblige banks to re-open branches in places where there are no longer banking facilities. It just obliges them to consider the social implications of bank decisions.
Fuel excise: Beazley told Radio 97 in Tweed Heads on February 15, "We don't oppose the indexation of excise per se". When asked if a Labor government would remove the GST from the excise portion of the price of fuel, Beazley fudged, "We are looking at the total picture on rollback and we will let people know about that at the time of the next election."
GST rollback: The Labor Party refuses to even consider abolishing the GST, preferring instead to roll it back from some items. However, it's unlikely that Labor's GST rollback will provide much relief. Beazley has only committed a Labor government to removing GST from rent charged to people who live in manufactured homes, mobile homes and caravan parks, and from women's sanitary products.
Environment: After the significant vote for the Greens in the WA election, Beazley released the ALP's environment policy on February 15. A Labor government would establish a national environment database and a commissioner for the environment. The glaring omission from the announcement is anything about the logging of old-growth forests.