I confess I was dismayed when Hockey got the Treasury job in opposition & then in govt. This in spite of his work experience & qualifications. I favoured Turnbull for the job.
However, having listened to Hockey in recent times, I am coming round to the view that he is going to prove me wrong, that he is going to turn out to be a really great Treasurer if not one of our finest.
He has gained the ability to translate what are complex problems into language that the average jack & jill will understand.

Like "the age of entitlement is over, the age of responsibility has begun".

Or his comments today:

TIGHT workplace laws are being blamed for pushing up unemployment and keeping young people out of work as Joe Hockey signals government plans for drastic reforms that extend from industrial relations to healthcare and the retirement age. 
 
Warning that Australia would fall behind the world if it did not act, the Treasurer made the case for highly controversial changes just as the federal government prepares to cut into its biggest spending programs in the May budget.

Mr Hockey argued for more flexible workplace rules on the grounds that onerous restrictions would limit job creation and punish the young, escalating political debate ahead of a government inquiry into industrial relations laws to be launched within days.

The Treasurer indicated that the retirement age would have to be raised beyond 67 as Australia’s population aged and the government struggled to pay the bill for the pension, healthcare and the broader welfare system.

The warnings come as Mr Hockey hosts a summit of his counterparts from the world’s 20 biggest economies to agree on ways to restructure economies and lift global growth.

Using the G20 agenda to argue for domestic reform, Mr Hockey drew on reports issued on Thursday and yesterday from the International Monetary Fund and the OECD that urged action to make labour markets more flexible.

Mr Hockey said the previous government had “re-regulated” the labour market but the lesson from around the world was that too many rules cost jobs.

“There’s a very clear message here: the more regulated the labour market, the higher the unemployment ends up being,” he said at the summit in Sydney yesterday.

“And it costs people their jobs and it means young people in particular lose the opportunity for a job.”

The Treasurer stood by a Coalition election pledge to avoid any major industrial relations reform until after the next election, giving voters the right to approve the changes.

However, his comments support the case for reform as the government gets ready to introduce legislation as early as Tuesday to allow workers to trade away penalty rates, while also releasing the terms of reference for a sweeping Productivity Commission inquiry into Labor’s workplace laws.

Yeah, yeah... we get it... you want to suck most of, if not the entire front bench off.

Sounds like work choices to me Bogey!!!

bogarde73 wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2014 at 1:34pm:


The world is in an economic crisis and the right are using this to reshape industrial relations and the distribution of wealth in favour of their capitalist masters.....I cannot wait to see what the commission of audit decides to cut and leave alone.....Abbott and Hockey are sewing the seeds of their own defeat!!!

Quote:


Running down your country's economy while in opposition I can understand.
Understand, yes, but believe it to be stupidity.

Running down your country's economy while in government is complete and utter stupidity.

Lobo wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2014 at 1:43pm:


Especially when economic stabilisers will return the economy to long term growth and $AU will depreciate.....The Coalition are using the worst economic circumstances in 80 years to justify reshaping the economy and industrial relations.....Once public health and education are cut nothing will improve!!!

What "huge" problems?

The major beneficiaries of an over-regulated workplace system are those in work and especially those other than the young who are in work.
Italy has an over-regulated work laws system and 40% of the under 25s can't get a job or can only get one in the black economy with no rights at all.
Australia has an over-regulated workplace system and we are headed in the same direction. Doesn't matter to most of the lefties here because they don't want to work anyway, they've settled for a welfare life.
Have I got news for them! Reject sensible reform and it won't be long before you don't have a safety net. You'll have food stamps.

You don't wait till your car won't start to do something about it. You make sure you have it serviced regularly to avoid problems arising.
That's where we are now with the medicare system. It has done too many miles without having an oil change. Leave it go and it just will fall apart.
That's what Hockey & Dutton are saying and their dead right.