There are signs Hockey is feeling very insecure in his job. His embarrassment is compounded by his invisibility in the past couple of weeks and Scott Morrison’s in-your-face presence everywhere.
To win the election, the Tories were willing to test the Union to destruction, effectively throwing the Scots out before they had left, on the basis of who they chose to vote for.
Sounding like a politician who wants to win an election rather than fix his budget, Hockey said: ‘It’s only Labor that wants to increase taxes on superannuation.’
According to the polls, when it comes to one of the Coalition’s favourite mantras of ‘returning the budget to surplus’, the electorate is of little faith.
Real pressure is mounting on the coalition to come up with something meaningful on emissions reduction before the Paris conference at the end of the year.
ICAC was set up by the Liberals and it seems its sole purpose was to go after crooked Labor politicians. It has now turned into Frankenstein’s monster, devouring its creators.
Who would have thought that a joint statement from nine of Australia’s peak business groups would attack a political leader for an “almost continuing focus on budget fairness”?