PoliticalClaims.au

While the claim is factually accurate - the Coalition did break this promise - the context matters: 1. **The breach was detected and documented quickly.** ABC Fact Check identified the broken promise within six months, providing transparency to voters about the government's failure to meet its commitment [1]. 2. **The promise may have been made with genuine intent.** Abbott's acknowledgment during the campaign that most projects already had cost-benefit analyses suggests the commitment was made in good faith, with awareness that such analyses were standard practice [2]. 3. **The East West Link project was ultimately abandoned.** The federal government's $1 billion allocation was part of a larger project that was cancelled by the subsequent Victorian state government at significant cost [3].

This doesn't excuse the broken promise, but it does show that the project itself was problematic and ultimately deemed not worth pursuing. 4. **This represents a broken process promise, not necessarily wasteful spending.** The claim itself relates to the failure to conduct proper analysis before committing funds, not to the outcome of the spending.