Three weeks into the federal election campaign and both major parties have already pledged to spend billions in taxpayer dollars if elected on May 3.

Login or signup to continue reading

But with so many policies announced - and surely more to follow - sometimes it can be hard to make sense of exactly what is being promised.

That ambiguity can come back to bite voters, and the government, during the next term.

So, how do you sort the deliverable promises from the downright impossible?

It's a question we reckoned with while tracking Labor's 2022 campaign promises over the last term through our Election Promise Tracker.

Politicians can make it hard to hold them accountable for their commitments later, so it's important to know when you're being sold a pup. Here are our tips on what to look out for in the lead-up to polling day.

Promise tracking relies on clearly defined actions that can be assessed against a specific timeline, and ideally by the end of a government's term.

But politicians have a habit of announcing policies that extend over much longer horizons, with no guarantee their party will be in government to see them through.

This can happen with large infrastructure projects and other big spending announcements, such as Labor's 2022 promise to bring investment in the Great Barrier Reef to $1.2 billion by 2030, or the Coalition's 2025 plan to build its first nuclear reactors by the middle of next decade.

Even five-year promises - whether to build 30,000 social and affordable homes or cut 41,000 public service jobs - aren't particularly helpful when terms are three years long.

Certainly, governments should set long-term priorities. But if pledges won't be completely........

© The Examiner