What a difference that day made to Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott's opinion of the entitlements of an elected Opposition

When the shoe is on the other foot it apparently pinches.......

According to Tony Abbott Member of Parliament in 2007:

Nelson is right to resist the intellectual bullying inherent in talk of “mandates”. ....

The elected Opposition is no less entitled than the elected Government to exercise judgement and to try to keep its election commitments. 

According to Tony Abbott Prime Minister-elect in 2013:

...Labor and the minor parties should respect the new government's mandate. In the end they all need to respect the government of our nation has a mandate and the Parliament should work with the government of the day to implement its mandate...