Sathius005
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2007
- Messages
- 716
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- HSC
- 2008
- Uni Grad
- 2018
Who is Australia's best recent Federal Treasurer?
A) Paul Keating
B) Peter Costello
C)Wayne Swan
D) Joe Hockey
Source: The Guardian
Only 5% of Australians nominate Joe Hockey as Australia’s best recent treasurer, including just 10% of Liberal voters – meaning he ranks last among the four treasurers polled.
The survey emerged as Labor targeted the treasurer with every one of its questions during parliamentary question time on Tuesday, using Hockey’s own various explanations and arguments as he has sought to sell his unpopular budget over the past three months.
Peter Costello topped the Essential Media poll, nominated as the best treasurer by 30% of respondents, including 54% of Liberal voters, followed by Paul Keating (23%, 12% of Liberal voters) and Wayne Swan (8%, 3% of Liberals). More than one in three (35%) said they “didn’t know” when asked who had been Australia’s best recent treasurer.
Despite the faltering budget sales pitch and the fact that much of the budget appears unlikely to pass the Senate, Tony Abbott insists the Coalition will demonstrate it is an “outstanding” reforming government.
Speaking at the launch of News Corp commentator Paul Kelly’s book Triumph and Demise, Abbott took issue with the author’s view that good government may have become impossible.
“There is no doubt that good government today is harder than ever before, in part, because of the 24/7 media cycle, which politicians inevitably need to feed,” Abbott said.
But he said it wasn’t the system that was the problem. Rather, “it is the people who, from time to time, inhabit it”. He said the mission of the government was “to demonstrate, through its action, ultimately through its record, that the last six years – the six years between 2007 and 2013 – is not the new normal; that it was in fact just a passing phase”.
Among the Hockey quotes thrown back at the treasurer during question time were his incorrect contention on the ABC’s Q&A program that a chronically ill patient would not pay the $7 GP co-payment (for most doctor’s visits the patient would pay), and his concession on the same program that the co-payment could be called a tax.
“It’s a payment,” Hockey said. “You can call it a tax … It comes out of a pocket. It comes out of someone’s pocket. A taxpayer’s pocket. You want to call it a tax, you can call it anything you want, you can call it a rabbit.”
Hockey now insists it is a “payment for service”.
Labor also harked back to Hockey’s statement in an interview on the ABC that “one of the things that quite astounds me is some people are screaming about a $7 co-payment … One packet of cigarettes costs $22. That gives you three visits to the doctor. You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two middies of beer to go to the doctor. And is a parent really going to deny their sick child a visit to the doctor which would be the equivalent payment of a couple of beers or one-third of a packet of cigarettes?”
They also asked him about his statement that “the poorest people don’t have cars or don’t drive far in many cases” for which the treasurer subsequently apologised. Hockey said he had “dealt with that last week”. And they questioned whether the fuel tax was in fact a “progressive” tax, as Hockey contended, on the basis of total spending figures, rather than calculations of fuel spending as a proportion of household income, the usual measure of whether a tax is regressive or progressive.
The government has removed many budget policies from the list of bills to be debated in the Senate this week, because they appeared set to be voted down, and continues to negotiate with the Senate crossbenchers, without any apparent breakthroughs.
Labor insisted the government had no mandate for a budget “built on lies” and the Palmer United party confirmed it would vote against the $7 GP co-payment, meaning it will not pass the Senate based on the current positions of opposition parties.
According to the Essential poll the Coalition is on 48% of the two-party-preferred vote, with Labor on 52%.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Hockey was “an albatross around the neck of this government”.
A) Paul Keating
B) Peter Costello
C)Wayne Swan
D) Joe Hockey
Source: The Guardian
Only 5% of Australians nominate Joe Hockey as Australia’s best recent treasurer, including just 10% of Liberal voters – meaning he ranks last among the four treasurers polled.
The survey emerged as Labor targeted the treasurer with every one of its questions during parliamentary question time on Tuesday, using Hockey’s own various explanations and arguments as he has sought to sell his unpopular budget over the past three months.
Peter Costello topped the Essential Media poll, nominated as the best treasurer by 30% of respondents, including 54% of Liberal voters, followed by Paul Keating (23%, 12% of Liberal voters) and Wayne Swan (8%, 3% of Liberals). More than one in three (35%) said they “didn’t know” when asked who had been Australia’s best recent treasurer.
Despite the faltering budget sales pitch and the fact that much of the budget appears unlikely to pass the Senate, Tony Abbott insists the Coalition will demonstrate it is an “outstanding” reforming government.
Speaking at the launch of News Corp commentator Paul Kelly’s book Triumph and Demise, Abbott took issue with the author’s view that good government may have become impossible.
“There is no doubt that good government today is harder than ever before, in part, because of the 24/7 media cycle, which politicians inevitably need to feed,” Abbott said.
But he said it wasn’t the system that was the problem. Rather, “it is the people who, from time to time, inhabit it”. He said the mission of the government was “to demonstrate, through its action, ultimately through its record, that the last six years – the six years between 2007 and 2013 – is not the new normal; that it was in fact just a passing phase”.
Among the Hockey quotes thrown back at the treasurer during question time were his incorrect contention on the ABC’s Q&A program that a chronically ill patient would not pay the $7 GP co-payment (for most doctor’s visits the patient would pay), and his concession on the same program that the co-payment could be called a tax.
“It’s a payment,” Hockey said. “You can call it a tax … It comes out of a pocket. It comes out of someone’s pocket. A taxpayer’s pocket. You want to call it a tax, you can call it anything you want, you can call it a rabbit.”
Hockey now insists it is a “payment for service”.
Labor also harked back to Hockey’s statement in an interview on the ABC that “one of the things that quite astounds me is some people are screaming about a $7 co-payment … One packet of cigarettes costs $22. That gives you three visits to the doctor. You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two middies of beer to go to the doctor. And is a parent really going to deny their sick child a visit to the doctor which would be the equivalent payment of a couple of beers or one-third of a packet of cigarettes?”
They also asked him about his statement that “the poorest people don’t have cars or don’t drive far in many cases” for which the treasurer subsequently apologised. Hockey said he had “dealt with that last week”. And they questioned whether the fuel tax was in fact a “progressive” tax, as Hockey contended, on the basis of total spending figures, rather than calculations of fuel spending as a proportion of household income, the usual measure of whether a tax is regressive or progressive.
The government has removed many budget policies from the list of bills to be debated in the Senate this week, because they appeared set to be voted down, and continues to negotiate with the Senate crossbenchers, without any apparent breakthroughs.
Labor insisted the government had no mandate for a budget “built on lies” and the Palmer United party confirmed it would vote against the $7 GP co-payment, meaning it will not pass the Senate based on the current positions of opposition parties.
According to the Essential poll the Coalition is on 48% of the two-party-preferred vote, with Labor on 52%.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Hockey was “an albatross around the neck of this government”.
Last edited:
