boulevarde of broken promises

It's depressing to know that the Howard Government is in all likelihood going to get away with breaking its election promises. Not to mention the fact that they made promises knowing full well they couldn't and wouldn't deliver on them.
Geez, don't you wish we could have a system where our political parties had to sign off on a written contract at the end of an election campaign, with such a contract spelling out all the "iron-clad" promises made to the people during the campaign, so that once elected, a government could actually be held accountable to the terms of that contract. And if terms of that agreement were breached, there would be enforceable penalties (say, being turfed out on their ear!).
Seems to me that to have made various promises to the people and have been elected on the basis of those promises and then to fail to deliver amounts to a clear breach of contract--you'd think John Howard, being a lawyer by trade, would understand this. Mind you, there's no need for a written agreement, since we already have a verbal one. They gave us their word, didn't they? Well, so much for that.
Anyway, I know...wishful thinking.