"Rubbery Joe" Hockey's War on Treasury

In 2007, when John Howard needed someone to polish the turd that was WorkChoices, he wheeled out Joe Hockey.  Until then, the job had been done by Kevin Andrews, a man with all the charm of the angel of death.  Howard deemed Hockey “avuncular” and just the ticket to retail his assault on the rights of working Australians.

We all know how that turned out.  Hockey’s alleged skills were insufficient to the task, and John Howard lost his own seat, only the second PM in history to do so.

Now that he is Shadow Treasurer, Mr Hockey has abandoned all pretence of avuncularity for something like concerned gravitas, a pose he no doubt considers more suited to the role of potential Treasurer.

Unfortunately for Mr Hockey, he is suffering from the same problem he did during his WorkChoices days: no matter how sincere the persona he assumes as salesman, the underlying product he is trying to flog is seriously flawed.

At least WorkChoices was straightforward in its intentions.

The problem with the Coalition’s approach to economic management is that they consider the notion of providing detail of what they intend to do as some sort quaint anachronism.

Yes, we have been given the big picture stuff – about a price on carbon, paid parental leave, a tax cut to big business – but they run a mile when pushed on how they will pay for everything.

It is extraordinary that they seem to be getting away with this now, given the debacle of their attempt at the 2010 election to cost their economic program.  As Peter Martin pointed out in the aftermath of that:

• The two Perth accountants who costed the Coalition’s 2010 election policies breached  professional  standards and will be fined, a disciplinary tribunal has ruled.
•  The ruling is an embarrassment to the Coalition which claimed during the campaign the costing was “as good as you could get anywhere in the country, including in Treasury.”

Yet, here we are in 2013 and it is déjà vu all over again.

While their reluctance to provide detailed costings is bad enough, it is the Coalition’s ongoing attempt to besmirch Treasury that has the potential to do long-term damage.