(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
The government has released a glossy brochure claiming that the first three months have been a success, although it does admit there may have been some mis-steps along the way.
Among the challenges of the first 100 days were the spying row with Indonesia, Holden's announcement it will stop manufacturing in Australia in 2017 and the government's extraordinary backflip on school funding.
Amanda Cavill looks at the federal government's first quarter in office.
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After three months in office, it appears that governing the nation proved more challenging than the incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott anticipated.
Two opinion polls leading up to the 100-day milestone suggest the Coalition is in a much worse position than on election day, placing the Coalition far behind Labor.
Mr Abbott's attempt to remove the carbon tax is on hold and the pledge to stop the boats has become a secretive operation that now has no cooperation from Indonesia.
The budget is in a situation that the government says will take a decade to rectify, while the NBN is in such financial trouble that, even with Coalition spending cuts, it will cost more to deliver and reach fewer Australians than was promised at the election.
It also won't be long before Australian-made cars will vanish from the roads of the 21st century, the national airline Qantas is in trouble and the National Disability Insurance Scheme start-up programs have been re-labelled as trial sites.
In addition, funding for wage increases for childcare and aged care workers have been scrapped and the government is asking for the money back from those providers who have already been paid.
However Mr Abbott is putting a brave face on the first few months of the post Gillard-Rudd era.
"I'm very satisfied that what we've demonstrated over the last hundred days is a Government which is competent and trustworthy. What this Government is on about is building a stronger and more prosperous economy, because a stronger and more prosperous economy means a better life for the individuals and families of Australia. A stronger and more prosperous economy means that government services will be better. So, I am very satisfied with what's been achieved over 100 days - we've made a good start."
The secrecy surrounding the government's Operation Sovereign Borders means it's unclear whether all aspects of the Coalition's asylum-seeker policy have been implemented.
These include leasing extra boats to help intercept refugees or expanding the detention centre on Nauru to 2000 places.
Mr Abbott has acknowledged that while asylum-seeker boat arrivals are slowing, they have not yet stopped.
He says the ongoing diplomatic row with Indonesia over spying is partially to blame.
"There's no doubt that the suspension of cooperation by the Indonesian authorities has been unhelpful; it's been singularly unhelpful. And given that people-smuggling is a crime in Indonesia, just as it's a crime in Australia, I think it's high time that cooperation was resumed. But I accept that in the end, what Indonesia does is a matter for Indonesia and what Australia does is a matter for Australia."
While the carbon and mining tax repeals have passed through the House of Representatives they remain blocked in the Senate by continued opposition from Labor and the Greens.
Mr Abbott says even if the government has to wait for the new Senate and its ranks of conservative crossbenchers to form on July the 1st, he will keep the promise to abandon those taxes.
Possibly the biggest negative for the government's early days was its handling of the schools funding.
The government managed to confuse parents, the education community, the states and those with an interest in schools on its approach to dismantling Labor's Gonski review of the education system.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne announced at the end of November that he was scrapping Labor's funding model and would renegotiate agreements with the states and territories within a year.
The resulting brawl led Mr Pyne to accuse critics of failing to understand his policy, but state premiers maintained their fury and the federal opposition began gaining significant political traction.
A week was lost to the outcry before Messrs Abbott and Pyne bought their way out of trouble, reversing their position and finding 1.2 billion dollars for two states and a territory that hadn't signed up to Labor's plan
Former Labor Hawke/Keating minister Graham Richardson has told Sky news that confusion has been damaging but it's not all bad news despite the broken promise on schools funding.
"I think they've done OK. I don't think it's been spectacularly brilliant but hasn't been nearly as bad as the polls would suggest. Remember that this is the worst poll result of any new government in 40 years. I think the difficulty is that for the last couple of years Tony Abbott made such a big deal of Julia Gillard breaking that promise on the carbon tax. Everybody knew they had broken a promise. I think people are punishing him for it.
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek says the government promised no surprises and no excuses but that is clearly not the case.
"So far it's been nasty surprises and pathetic excuses. We've seen broken promises in education. They said they were a unity ticket with Labor on education funding, and instead they've been dragged kicking and screaming to funding part of the Gonski funding model, but not all of it."
National Party Deputy leader Barnaby Joyce says he doesn't agree with Labor's assessment.
Mr Joyce says in fact the Coalition has achieved a number of important outcomes already, especially in the bush.
"When we arrived there wasn't any farm finance agreement but there is now so we can tick that box. When we arrived there wasn't a free trade agreement with Korea, but we've got one now, so we can tick that box. When we arrived they'd destroyed the live cattle trade. So we fixed that up. So we can tick that box. But it's not just what we have done in the first hundred days, it's our plan for the future, our plan for future decades."
Tony Abbott and his frontbench now have the long summer break to take stock of the past few months and return to parliament to explain a clear vision for the rest of the political term.
