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Is Hockey Reading My Blog And Using It For His Speeches??

When Joe Hockey announced that he was abandoning the 2018 date for returning the Budget to surplus, I suspected that yet again he’d blame the Labor party for his inability to deliver on his promise, but I never thought he’d try to suggest that it was – in fact – the Labor Party that tried to hold him to a target of ever getting it back into surplus.

“I never set a target. That was implied by the Labor party,” he said.

Although this does have the qualifier “based on the numbers presented today”, one would have to suggest that it’s rather disingenuos to base them on numbers that you don’t believe.

JOE HOCKEY (National Press Club, 2012): Based on the numbers presented last Tuesday night we will achieve a surplus in our first year in office and we will achieve a surplus for every year of the first term.

Ok, it’s fair to point out that they did abandon such an ambitious timeline prior to the election, but even after the election we’ve been told many, many times that getting the Budget back on – track that’s what’s important.

As Mr Hockey told us in his update on prior to the official update on the Budget:

“Twelve months ago, iron ore was at $120 a tonne,” he said. “There were market expectations it would fall to $95 a tonne. We budgeted $92 a tonne. It’s currently $63 and we are forecasting that it will remain around $60 a tonne for the foreseeable future. That more than 30 per cent fall in iron ore prices has had a big impact on the budget, as has a 15 per cent fall in thermal coal and a 20 per cent fall in wheat prices since the budget. As a result, the forecast decline in the terms of trade this year is the largest since records were first kept in 1959.

“The government has decided to use the budget, which is stronger than it was 12 months ago, as a shock absorber for the biggest fall in our export prices in many years. If we don’t use the budget as a shock absorber for this extraordinary fall in the terms of trade, then Australians will lose jobs and we will lose our prosperity.”

Mm, I don’t quite understand how the Budget is stronger than it was twelve months ago given the expectation is that it’s expected to blow out by billions of dollars in current year. In fact, it may even blow out by more this year than the measures being “held up” in the Senate (which are over the forward estimates and not as enormous as they seem when you say them quickly!) But hey, Joe must know what he’s doing. After all, he sounded so confident when he was in Opposition.

Yep, they’d be a “no excuses, no surprises” government. But they weren’t expecting the commodity prices to fall and so that’s not their surprise, which means that it’s not an excuse either. It’s just one of those things that nobody has any control over.

So Joe’s going to get the Budget back on track. But he won’t be setting a timeline. It seems the blog I wrote yesterday about the Liberals changing their name to the “Sleeping Dogs Party” is closer to the truth than I thought. I should probably sue Joe for copyright.

So Joe tells us that the Budget is going to be used as a “shock absorber” otherwise people would “lose their jobs”. Part of the way he’s using it as a shock absorber is by shutting down government departments and sacking public servants, because they don’t count as real jobs, and they certainly don’t spend the money they earn in the “real” economy. No, this’ll help consumer confidence grow and stop the unemployment rate rising.

So Joe’s going to get the Budget back on track. When he can. Just don’t rush him, ok. He’s had a lot of unexpected events. You can’t plan for the future, you know. And anyway, he didn’t promise a timeline. We just have to know that he’s in there, doing his best.

And it’s all the Labor Party’s fault anyhow.

 

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42 comments

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  1. Garth

    What can you say about our poor sap Joe?! They just can’t stop lying, can they?? Even when he’s presenting information on something they genuinely don’t have control over (the dip in terms of trade), he has to throw in a blatant porky with ‘… the budget, which is stronger than it was 12 months ago’ (for the sake of argument, i’m setting aside the hypocrisy of all their previous statements about the budget when in opposition). They just seem incapable of saying more than 5 words without including a bold faced lie that shows their continued contempt for the Australian people. I don’t expect anything else but I still have to say i’m stunned (and increasingly depressed).
    Thanks Rossleigh.

  2. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    You stole all my smartarse lines, Rossleigh.

    I share your irony for Hokey Pokey’s failed attempt at delivering a sound budget and how it has destroyed consumer confidence and job sustainability.

    Onya Hokey! While you’re enjoying your luxurious Christmas, don’t spoil your festivities by thinking about the distraught families on unemployment benefits and with insecure futures!

  3. David

    I heard the fat, sniveling, incompetent, lazy hog woops meant slob, whatever..heard JoHo on Sky today blaming Labor naturally, the Senate, ore prices everything except not once, not flippin once himself for the budget numbers stuff up.
    He has absolutely no idea what he is doing, must be sending his advisers up the wall. That’s without the consequences of what he is doing to the nation except his well off mates on top of the income heap.

  4. Garth

    David, they seriously all seem to be missing a ‘shame’ gene. They can spew dribble that is blatantly false, or misleading, or contradictory to something they have clearly said before… without any sign that it bothers them at all. I cannot imagine any decent person even approaching the depravity of their words and behaviour (i’m just glad my kids don’t follow politics cause how the hell do you teach a kid not to lie or deceive when we have our entire government lieing in spades??).

  5. Loz

    This imbecile of a treasurer must go and go soon.

  6. Geoff Andrews

    I don’t want to comment , I just want to follow the discussion

  7. Anthony Shorter

    I thought that John Winston was the worst treasurer we ever had to suffer, but Eleventy Joe makes him look semi numerate by comparison.

  8. John Kelly

    Whatever shock absorber Joe uses, unemployment will continue to rise, the deficit will continue to rise as will the false debt and Joe will NEVER deliver a surplus budget….ever. The only things that won’t be rising are his approval rating and his competence.

  9. Wayne Rowles

    Why is it that this totally incompetent Government is allowed to remain in power? Can’t the people of Australia mobilise at Parliament House and call these lying,incompetent fools out for what they are ;rich lying arseholes one and all,driving our nation down the proverbial toilet,just because of their ideology and their hatred of the working class.Wake up Australia before it’s too late!

  10. stephentardrew

    It’s all over bar the shouting Joe. Hang on by those manicured fingernails because they are beginning to bleed and will very soon fall out.

    Oh dear it’s so sad to see such an upstanding doyen of cruelty and suffering for the masses fall into the giant turd of his making.

    Congratulations Joe and a shitty Christmas to you.

  11. Totaram

    The budget is stronger because the deficit is larger – that is a counter-cyclical budget you see, a shock absorber! Of course only the coalition can do this kind of thing because they are always the better economic managers! If Labor has a deficit it is bad, BAD! Labor’s debt and deficit disaster will be fixed by the coalition, and the first thing this coalition govt. will bring in is an even bigger deficit. Now, it may seem a bit strange to those who don’t understand the complexities of macro economics, but trust the coalition, that is how it is done. Labor doesn’t know how to bring in a deficit in a proper fashion. They spend like drunken sailors, and piss the money off to the average bloke and build stupid school buildings and insulate people homes – complete waste! The coalition brings in deficits by making sure that the “wealth creators” are taken care of by being given tax breaks and incentives, while the average bloke is made to tighten the belt. Things are serious! No more entitlements! Cut the carbon tax and the Mining tax, so those poor industries can get on with business in these difficult times. And naturally, the average bloke needs to pay for these “incentives” so that s/he has a job! What was that? Jobs being cut in the mining industry? Clearly, they need more support.

    And so on….Seriously, people, get a grip. Joe Hockey deficit: good! Wayne Swan promise of surplus: stupid! (And for those who really understand our sovereign currency and its operation, this last statement is more true than you might like to believe.)

  12. DanDark

    With all that private education and supposed worldly knowledge that smoking Joe has acquired over his life
    He still don’t get it…..Confucius say ” Problem should not become excuse”
    Joe is a poor excuse as a Treasurer and a big problem…..

  13. OzFenric

    The thing is, the budget is not any “stronger” than it was. This is what I don’t get: Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey are relentlessly dragging out the “fixing the budget was our overriding promise!” as an excuse for all the broken ones, but in reality the deficit (even before the current write-downs) is ever-deepening under the Coalition’s warped ideology. The Coalition’s budgeted policies to date basically equate to “Screw the poor, cut spending on services and things that Government is actually here for, but then plough all the money received back into subsidies and tax cuts for the rich and tax repeals for big business (mining tax and ETS)”. By telling us that the budget is stronger now, Hockey is not only restating the lies about the intention of Coalition policies, he’s telling brand new ones about the effect of his policies.

  14. Kaye Lee

    Making the 1% richer is not going to increase consumer confidence or disposable income for the majority or demand for goods. Company tax cuts and subsidies and deregulation is not going to increase employment. It just ups the dividends to shareholders and donations to the Liberal Party.

  15. Kerri Laidlaw

    I really think Joe thinks all there is to it, when you are the Treasurer, is to say what you want, to the people, and it just happens! Like “spend, spend, spend” and “get a job” and “fix the budget” and “this is the best day of my life”

  16. iggy648

    Iron ore producers expect to increase production by 14% at the same time that prices have fallen by 50%. Maybe the idea is to show as little profit as possible so they don’t pay much tax.

  17. diannaart

    Oh Thaaaat budget. Rossleigh, thank you for the clarification – I thought Hockey meant the budget that will not pass senate or collect $200. Here’s me trying to picture Hockey using a turd as a shock absorber. Good thing I am not the treasurer…

  18. Kyran

    Iggy, Radio National have been doing analysis of both ore and oil markets for at least six months. My understanding is that demand is reducing due to slow downs in previously booming economies. The expected northern winter demand has not kicked in and is not expected to. The three largest ore producers have a lower cost factor than their competitors and are ramping up production to force further drops in the market price, which will result in many of the smaller competitors simply going broke. Similarly with oil, the demand has dropped at the same time many American producers were aggressively entering the market place. They, too, are ramping up production to maintain market share and it has become a case of “who blinks first”, who can stay longest in the market at break even or loss scenario’s and still be standing “when things come good”. My memory is that the “mining tax” was originally to be a “super profits tax” applying to a wider range of producers. A business will do anything for their profits, even making losses in the short term. Under the illustrious Hokey, maybe we should consider a “super losses tax”, just to keep the bastards at least a little bit honest.
    Oh, and Rossleigh, great read. But your opening premise is fatally flawed. It assumes Hokey reads. Take care

  19. Möbius Ecko

    Pascoe and other economic commentators, even from the right, are stating Hockey is reaping what he sowed. For four years he spruiked doom and gloom, talking down the economy at every turn to bash the Labor government, regardless of the truth. It worked, even overseas investors lost some confidence due to the constant barrage of a woeful economy, Greece/Spain like debt and the terrible economic managers that was the government.

    It was their tactic for everything the Labor government did, bag it repeatedly until it became fact.

    Well this one, as Pascoe stated, has backfired on Hockey and he only has himself to blame.

    Now he’s going on about the economy being stronger, a lie, and next year being stronger again and the one after that stronger again because he knows he dug a hole and is now attempting to extricate himself from it by spruiking a ladder that doesn’t exist.

  20. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    … and the irony is Mobius Ecko, if it has taken several years for the ‘talking down’ of the economy by Hokey Pokey to take effect, his ‘talking up’ should take several years.

    That means that when the Greens/Labor/progressive voices/sane Independents and Crossbenches Alliance have settled successfully into government, the economy will be responding very nicely to their magnificent collaborative efforts.

    A double whammy for Hokey and his LNP Degenerate mates!

  21. Kaye Lee

    Did I hear someone mention “look over there” stunts? There have been another round of anti-terror raids in Western Sydney by the AFP this morning with “one man arrested” apparently. Terrorists are a great way to stop people looking at the budget.

  22. Möbius Ecko

    Oh that’s too much of a coincidence Kaye Lee, way too much of a coincidence.

    The evening news actually reported Abbott’s stunt at a nippers surf carnival as a distraction from the budget. It’s something he would have got away with without question not long ago, now everything he does is speculated on as a deliberate distraction framed in the background of his history of lying.

  23. Angela ♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥ (@sallie6youtube)

    I am so over all their continuous lies, lying about lying backflips, tricks & finger pointing still at Labor – they are just poor managers…the Abbott govt. is in such a shocking mess!

    Does anybody know how much money under Abbott/Hockey has been WASTED? a list? A present for Reserve Bank which they didn’t ask for was $8.8 billion to start with!

  24. Kaye Lee

    Now we have a hostage situation in Martin Place in the Sydney CBD.

  25. Möbius Ecko

    Here is as good a place as any. Craig Thomson found not guilty on 49 charges of misappropriating HSU funds.

  26. DanDark

    ME Yes he is looking like the King of the Kids I last week
    I rang GGs office last week and said ”
    there will be no Christmas presents in my house this year thanks to Tony Abbott and Joe smoking Hockey
    This will the first year after 35 years and 6 kids that I wont be buying presents
    I have 22 yr old in Uni ,and I have 2 kids at home, a 9 year old that hasnt been to school
    for 3 months because I just cannot afford to educate her too at this moment in time,
    and have had to explain presents are the least things we need right now
    I have had to sacrifice her schooling and her Xmas so I can keep my 22 yr old in Uni for another 2 years
    Joe Hockey can stick his advice not to disappoint Santa up his arse”
    She said she would pass it on.

    Two days later we had Tones putting toys in the back of a van from charity for Xmas
    and now he is at Nippers to what impress those kids LOL

    But that wont help me because I don’t do charity, like I don’t do credit
    They can stick their charity up there butt literally 🙂

  27. Möbius Ecko

    MYEFO: Australia set to emerge from once-in-a-century resources boom with little to show for it

    Good article, though I don’t agree the tyro Treasure had the right intentions.

    Though nothing is more certain that Hockey and this government will blame Labor, and they have a role in continuing the real culprits’ money throwaway, but the real culprits are Howard and Costello, who squandered hundreds of billions in give-aways to win elections. To give Costello due he recognised the danger and railed against it too late, but Howard ignored even Costello and right up until he was kicked out kept throwing money at wasted vote buying instead of into stimulus, infrastructure and social requirements.

  28. Bacchus

    Now we have a hostage situation in Martin Place in the Sydney CBD.

    How did Peta organise that so quickly? 😛

  29. Kaye Lee

    Re Thomson: The judge has found the prosecution case was in error, describing it as “regrettable”.

    Now let’s move our attention to the real rorter – Kathy Jackson. Her medical certificate runs out in February.

  30. Kaye Lee

    Not sure we can blame this one on Peta but Tony has already given a press release about the situation even though no-one really knows what is going on.

  31. DanDark

    They have got some bloke on ABC saying “the person was on his way to a bigger target
    But was interrupted and had to divert into chocolate shop, it could of been a hamburger joint,
    but the plan has gone wrong and they need to get those hostages out, because his plan has gone badly and he would be panicking probably”
    this was his theory of whats happening he admitted that, its not fact backed up by anyone ..

  32. Garth

    DD, i’ve been flicking around the stations listening to the various coverage of this siege. I’ve never heard so much conjecture in my life (with little fact to support it). The guardian reported over an hour ago that the flag in the window isn’t an Isis flag but most channels are still reporting it is.

  33. Kaye Lee

    Hockey and Cormann were supposed to start their press conference at 12:30. They have just said on the abc that Tony will be holding a press conference at 12:30 about this situation. Why the hell would he do that when he knows nothing about what is going on. The speculation is ridiculous.

  34. DanDark

    So in comes Super Tones to assure us they have it all under control
    And we can trust what he says pfffftttt
    This will backfire on him, like every other time he opens his gob without thinking…

  35. Kaye Lee

    Tony was surprisingly restrained for once. I was rather surprised to hear that Obama has been briefed about the situation.

  36. DanDark

    its going around now on ABC that “they” want to talk to the PM that is their demand,
    that’s maybe why he was quiet, he did say just go about your business, the gov will still run,
    and joe and Corman will be out shortly with a press conference that was planned earlier
    Its almost, the look over here, there is nothing to see over there at Martin Place,
    business as usual, we are still going to screw you pleb Aussies, this wont stop us from destroying Aussies

  37. Garth

    Kaye, yes he was restrained but he noted that the motivation for the siege is unknown but then goes on to give us a lesson on what politically motivated crimes are intended to achieve.

  38. Garth

    I also loved the juxtaposition of the Xmas tree behind tones while he briefs us on a siege situation. Surely they could have closed the doors or moved the tree?? Not a big deal but just looked weird.

  39. DanDark

    Yes the Xmas tree should of been moved, there are people in that chocolate shop experiencing the most distressing position that no one could begin to understand and he is grandstanding in front of a Xmas Tree, which is a symbol of Christianity
    .
    Its politically motivated towards Tones one expert has just said, the flags in the windows are a sign of this he said, he said it might not be, but its looking like it…..

  40. stephentardrew

    Cormann and Hockey are straight out lying again. They look quite stressed and worried because they know this is crap. Quick release under cover of the supposed terrorist attack.

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