“I should’ve known what was going on. I should’ve done more and I’m very disappointed that I didn’t,” said James Hird this morning as he began a 12-month suspension for his role in Essendon’s supplements program.
Don’t expect a similar admission from Joe Hockey at the National Press Club today, as he debates Chris Bowen, the man he will likely replace as treasurer. Hockey will do just enough — no more — to win government, knowing the Coalition’s numbers still don’t add up.
Hockey this morning released an interim list of $31.6 billion in budget savings — a limited collection of contested costings — but has refused to hand over the findings to back the estimates. The rest will come, we’re told, next week.
For now, we’re supposed to believe a cabal of Coalition favourites like Peter Shergold hand-picked to offer oversight to the numbers, a campaign figleaf to hide a budgetary hole Hockey will have to sort out as treasurer.
The Coalition’s promise of full information “in good time” is fast running out. Tony Abbott is poised to become Australia’s prime minister in 10 days. There are too many questions hanging over his head for that to happen.
“Tomorrow is another day” …. Gone with the Wind too.
Good on you for pushing the desperate “show me the money” mantra that Labor has been using. After all, it’s about the only weapon left for such a discredited government and a campaigning publication like yours should keep plugging away.
Not many people care really because we live in a time when the financial predictions of treasury shift by billions and billions of dollars every month. Remember the surplus? That was still a treasury prediction less than a year ago.
People are responding to the visionary stuff now and the vision is that a Coalition government will be better than the other lot at bringing the government’s finances under control.
David – If your beloved Coalition don’t publish their budget figures, then they will be an “illegitimate” government. All these people who you say are going to vote for them should be careful what they wish for!
I watched Bowen and Hockey on the National Press Club debate today. Hockey is an economic illiterate. He couldn’t answer one question correctly. Doesn’t know what he is talking about. Very scary!
It was painful to watch Sloppy trying to fill the time allocated – not ‘answering’ just vamping until the bell dinged.
Apart from the (clinical?) aphasia, just fluffing words coz they, kinda sorta, sounded like the ones he meant to say he just burbled on, forgetting that he no longer the poor sad obese man given a pass when it came to thinking.
This issue is simply not going to cut through because the government has utterly failed to control its own costings and estimates through its entire term and people have noticed.
I remember Conroy shouting at journalists when he launched the NBN that he would take no notice of a business case done “on the back of a fag packet” when at the time, he didn’t even have the fag packet costings.
If you’re really looking for one, there’s a fiscal black hole for you, carefully hidden away behind a commercial smokescreen that the thing is actually going to give a 7% return for the taxpayer. What a joke.
Abuse Hockey if you like, though I would like this thread to stick to policy issues rather than insults. The public is taking no notice of the costings debate because Labor has absolutely zero credibility over them.