Yesterday’s extraordinary admission of error from a political figure came after Labor dumped a plan to install a health clinic on or near Williamtown RAAF base.

It would have provided free GP and dental care to spouses and dependents of the 2500 serving personnel living in areas such as Thornton and Ashtonfield.

The broken election promise joins the loss of a guaranteed MRI licence for Maitland on the list of breaks of faith with Maitland’s Labor voters, and Liberal Paterson MP Bob Baldwin said the shelving of the F3-to-Branxton link road project pending another study made it “three strikes” for Mr Fitzgibbon and Prime Minister Rudd.

Mr Fitzgibbon told the Mercury yesterday: “My message (to defence personnel and their families) is that we apologise. It’s far more difficult than we first thought.”

He said Labor commissioned an external audit of the policy before the 2007 election but underestimated the financial and logistical challenges of the then-12 clinic project, including the security consequences of placing a doctor’s surgery on a military base.

“Often that is the case in opposition when you don’t have all the data available to you,” he said.

“In good faith, we made a commitment to run a pilot program. We are proceeding far more modestly than we first planned, but we’re determined to get it right. Economic responsibility is the order of the day.

“I’ll let people come to their own conclusions (on whether they should trust the government). They will make that judgement in two -and-a-half years time.

“The Rudd Government has been highly successful in achieving various pre-election promises. I would give us an overall scorecard of nine out of 10.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said the Government had inherited an inflationary economic environment that forced spending cuts, particularly in defence.

He said the health clinic project would proceed at five sites, including one at Singleton, and would examine a possible role for new GP Super Clinics. He also said new “bricks and mortar” investment was off the agenda and the pilot program would produce recommendations by the end of 2009.

Mr Fitzgibbon travelled to the Williamtown base in the last week of the 2007 election campaign to promise the centre and said: “This plan is largely designed to address the retention issues we are experiencing at the moment.”

Paterson MP and opposition defence personnel spokesman Bob Baldwin said the broken promise would hardly lift military morale in the Maitland area and dudded families including those living in defence housing in areas like Ashtonfield and Thornton.

“Williamtown personnel I’ve spoken to are less than impressed. They were promised it, they looked at the total package when considering their vote, and feel as though they’ve been lied to.”

“It was a specific promise made at the front gates of the RAAF base. This is not a misinterpretation of the situation; this was a clear, unequivocal promise.”

Mr Baldwin said as a general rule defence forces initially recruit individuals but retain families.

He said relocated families find it hard to get on to a GP’s books, particularly in areas suffering from a GP shortage such as Maitland, and also had few family members or friends to assist with transport problems.