Former federal Liberal treasurer Joe Hockey, would rather a Labor majority government than a hung parliament.
Speaking from Washington DC, Hockey told the the Professional Planner Advice Policy Summit that people should not vote for independents, because they are governed by self-interest.
He said that either of the major parties will feel duty-bound to ensure that every constituency gets taken care of with policy initiatives or funding because they govern for a broad base, but that independents don’t necessarily have that same objective.
“Good governance is about coming up with the best compromise for the whole country and you’ll never get that with independents,” Hockey said in an exclusive interview with Conexus Financial founder and managing director Colin Tate AM.
Another area of risk in the Australian political landscape, Hockey said, was the inability of current governments to pursue effective policy reform in areas such as financial services and taxation because of a new generation of squeaky wheels that populate the social media landscape.
Hockey said that that the advent of social media has diluted the ability of government to cut through with a clear narrative for change such as the one the Howard Government prosecuted when it was promoting the need for a goods and services tax (GST) in Australia.
The GST debate featured messaging about the multiple taxes that were cumbersome that then segued into the GST being the way to ensure that the country gets a simplified tax system.
“Today because of social media the voice of the critic is much louder than the voice of the advocate so you can be standing on the bigger pulpit advocating for something and you will get drowned out,” Hockey said.
“I heard the other day Anthony Albanese announced $1.9 million for something and at the press conference all he did was answers questions on Gaza and Trump.
“That is the changing dynamic. It is impossible to run a debate in public that will then facilitate change. The solution is for government to get out of the way.”
Notable impacts
Hockey said that there are several notable impacts of this, including the fact that the private sector would innovate in its own right.
He pointed to examples such as the taxi industry that has gone through the ridesharing phenomenon and is now grappling with driverless cars.
There are also the challenges in entertainment and broadcasting where broadcast licenses have needed to be rethought in the context of streaming services such as Netflix.
“The productivity improvements and the positive change are going to come from business and not from government,” he said.
“What we have to do is allow the private sector to grow, and innovate, and facilitate that innovation.”
Hockey’s theme related to the management of risk in the current environment was sprinkled with a healthy dose of analysis about the risks posed by the Trump presidency given the breakneck speed at which the Trump 2.0 regime is moving.
The impact of tariffs on free trade, for example, was an issue that got an airing with Hockey recounting numerous discussions with Trump as well as key members of his administration on the inadvisability of using tariffs as a blunt negotiating instrument to achieve policy and economic outcomes.
“They just don’t agree [that tariffs are harmful to their own people],” Hockey said.
“They see tariffs as a weapon of choice to achieve economic and policy outcomes from other countries. He is weaponizing tariffs to try and get better deals.”
‘This time it’s different’
Hockey told the conference audience that the second iteration of the Trump presidency was different because he was much better prepared, and he pointed to the “tsunami of executive orders” as one key example of Trump 2.0 moving at hyperspeed.
“This is a political blitzkrieg – the likes of which we have never seen anywhere in the world in such a short period of time,” Hockey said.
“It can only happen because the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief.”
He said that one of the lessons Trump had learned from this first term is to ensure that the secretaries understand and fulfil his agenda rather than have the secretaries be given their independence.
Independence given by Trump, Hockey observed, saw the departments control the agenda rather than have the secretaries ensure that Trump’s vision was implemented.
