Madonna King has written an interesting and highly readable biography of Australia’s current federal treasurer, Joe Hockey (Hockey Not Your Average Joe, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 2014). This book is timely because the post of Australian federal treasurer is arguably the second most important political leadership position after that of prime minister.
The first chapter overviews the Hockey family’s interesting history. There is analysis in this chapter of Richard, Joe Hockey’s Armenian-Palestinian father, with regard to his early life, emigration to Australia, establishment of a family business, marriage and the raising of his son. It becomes apparent that Joe Hockey had a very supportive family environment in which his Catholic school, St Aloysius, fulfilled an important part of his life. Indeed, in Year 5 (according to the biographer) the future federal treasurer declared that he would be prime minister!
The building blocks of Joe Hockey’s future political career were subsequently established as a student at Sydney University in the 1980s where he was elected president of the Student Representative Council (SRC). The biography details how Joe Hockey established a university halls of residence political base to successfully run for the position of SRC president and how the future would-be prime minister gained a name for himself in the broader community as a moderate, but activist university student political leader.
Although it is not analysed in the biography, Joe Hockey’s university student political career was uncannily similar to Peter Costello’s, Tony Abbott’s and Malcolm Turnbull’s in that he did not have a straight Liberal Party pedigree. Reference is made with regard to Joe Hockey then being a small-L liberal with his advocating a vote in the Senate for the Australian Democrats. Joe Hockey’s decision to join the Liberal Party is outlined with reference to shutting himself off for two days in his family’s Blue Mountains holiday home to contemplate his political future.
Where there is a major gap in the biography is with regard to the omission of detail between the time of Joe Hockey’s decision to commit to the Liberal Party in the late 1980s and his meeting in the winter of 1990 with New South Wales Liberal Party power brokers. At this meeting, it was determined who would become the 1990-1991 New South Wales Young Liberals president. There is reference (in Chapter 5, page 51) as to the reasons why the party elders chose Joe Hockey as the next Young Liberals state president.
These reasons included Joe Hockey’s previous experience in the media as Sydney University SRC president holding him in good stead to represent the Young Liberals in the broader community and his business corporate links as a then lawyer with Corrs Australian Solicitors. Joe Hockey’s efforts in recruiting more members into his Killara Young Liberals branch were also identified as a contributing factor with regard to why he became the future New South Wales Young Liberals leader.
However, more in-depth analysis as to how Joe Hockey positioned himself to establish his niche within the state branch’s power hierarchy by his being selected Young Liberal president could still have been provided. More detailed analysis could also have been undertaken as to why Joe Hockey had decided to commit to the Liberal Party and what the party’s power brokers expected of him in his future political career.
Reference is made to Joe Hockey belonging to the New South Wales Liberal Party branch’s moderate faction but insight is not provided as to why the future federal treasurer surprisingly became such an ardent economic rationalist. Nor were the factors which contributed to Joe Hockey’s later political alliance with Tony Abbott analysed in sufficient depth to provide any possible insight. This aspect of analysis would have been particularly interesting because Tony Abbott hails from the ostensibly rival conservative faction of the New South Wales branch of the Liberal Party.
The biography is cogently written in that a coherent overview gives details of Joe Hockey’s political progress into parliament when elected as a federal member in 1996 and his promotion after the 1998 federal election to the junior ministry. Joe Hockey’s achievements as a junior minister are overviewed which helps establish the context within which Prime Minister Howard appointed him to the cabinet as Workplace Relations Minister in January 2007.
Joe Hockey’s actions as Work Place Relations Minister in 2007 are effectively analysed. His appointment as Work Place Relations Minster is attributed to Prime Minister Howard’s belief that Joe Hockey would effectively sell the anti-employee WorkChoices (sic) legislation.
Analysis is undertaken of Joe Hockey as Workplace Relations Minister introducing a de facto industrial employment safety net which was known as the ‘fairness test’ is undertaken. This was an achievement of sorts on Joe Hockey’s part because Prime Minister Howard was opposed to even this tepid concession! Whether Joe Hockey was motivated to introduce the so-called ‘fairness test’ to improve the government’s image or because he was sincerely motivated by social justice motives is unclear from reading the Hockey biography.
The book moves from reviewing the federal parliamentary Liberal Party’s unease concerning WorkChoices (sic) to manoeuvres to depose Howard as prime minister in September 2007. The positioning by senior cabinet ministers (of whom Joe Hockey was a prominent mover and shaker) to remove Howard from office are too briefly and superficially analysed. It is still to be fully or adequately explained to the Australian people why there were moves to depose John Howard and replace him with then Treasurer Peter Costello so close to a federal election.
Furthermore, the role Peter Costello fulfilled in temporarily saving Howard’s bacon by agreeing on a succession plan in which he (i.e. Howard) agreed to retire during the ensuing term- should the coalition have won the 2007 election- is also too obtusely overviewed.
There are also gaps in analysis with regard to how Joe Hockey in early 2009 snared the key position of Shadow Treasurer from federal deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop. More in-depth analysis could also have been undertaken in the biography as to how Joe Hockey -toward the end of 2009- was supposedly in a position to depose Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition Leader to become the Liberals’ federal parliamentary leader.
Vivid and dramatic detail is provided in the biography of the machinations by which Tony Abbott in the final leadership ballot deposes Malcolm Turnbull by a one-vote margin. The account provided in the biography aligns with the now conventionally accepted narrative that Joe Hockey foolishly undermined his leadership candidacy by ostensibly committing to a conscience vote concerning the introduction of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which was officially known as a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
An alternative scenario, as referred to in other Social Action Australia articles, is that far from being politically foolish, Joe Hockey calculatedly siphoned off enough moderate faction votes from Malcolm Turnbull in the first parliamentary leadership ballot to help ensure that, in the ensuing run-off parliamentary vote, Tony Abbott prevailed by one vote against the Member for Wentworth.
Because the perspective has been accepted that Joe Hockey was politically foolish in the December 2009 leadership vote, the current federal treasurer has been able to avoid the taint of having being a political Judas so that he is now well-positioned to succeed Tony Abbott as prime minister. Due to Joe Hockey’s key role in facilitating Tony Abbott becoming Liberal leader, the two have probably done a succession plan.
Should Joe Hockey therefore succeed to the prime ministership, the question therefore emerges as to what sort of leader would he make? It is clear from Joe Hockey’s actions as treasurer to date that he will be an economic rationalist who places free market ideology before the genuine national interest, similar to Paul Keating.
The remainder of the biography following on from the coalition’s 2013 federal election victory analyses economic rationalist public policy decisions such as the refusal to provide government assistance to QANTAS.
This policy approach attests to Joe Hockey being an economic rationalist who in the event of his ever becoming prime minster will with tragic determination and vigour, lead the nation to public policy failure. Under such a scenario, is a future biography of a Prime Minister Joe Hockey really necessary when the outcome of public policy failure has already essentially been fore-told?