Joe Hockey goes to Washington and writes his memoirs
- Written by Dennis Altman, VC Fellow LaTrobe University, La Trobe University
Perhaps unfairly, the image most of us have of Joe Hockey comes from his time as federal Treasurer, when he was photographed smoking a cigar with then Finance Minister Mathias Cormann in the aftermath of the 2014 budget.
Hockey tells us that the cuts in that budget were justified, ignoring the inconvenient fact that it broke a number of promises made by Tony Abbott when he won the 2013 election.
Review: Diplomatic: A Washington Memoir – Joe Hockey with Leo Shanahan (Harper Collins)
Joe Hockey regards Labor leader Anthony Albanese as a ‘very decent human being’.
Bianca Di Marchi/AAP
Hockey served in the US through the worst years of COVID and is very critical of the American response. He was certainly aware of the ravages of extreme weather and Trump’s refusal to recognise the dangers of climate change. But like Morrison and Minister for Defence Peter Dutton, Hockey seems unable to connect the threats of climate change and fast spreading epidemic diseases to notions of national security.
Yet the failure to think more broadly about global security is hampering Australia’s position in the Pacific, where governments have consistently asked us to do more to prevent global warming.
Mateship with the US is hardly a sufficient basis for a foreign policy in the contemporary world. The constant refrain about our shared values and support for the international rules-based system obscures the reality that the US acts in its own interests, whether or not they coincide with ours.
Joe Hockey is determined to appear non-partisan and largely avoids commenting on current Australian politics. He does, however, make a point of saying of Labor leader Anthony Albanese that “he’s a very decent human being”. Revealingly, he has nothing similar to say about the current Prime Minister.
References^ rewarding major campaign donors with embassies (www.nytimes.com)^ Joseph Benedict Chifley (primeministers.moadoph.gov.au)^ Politics with Michelle Grattan: Joe Hockey on Trump, Biden, and the federal election (theconversation.com)^ conversation between Alexander Downer, then High Commissioner in London, and George Papadopoulos, an advisor to the Trump team (www.abc.net.au)^ he suggested that there may have been voter fraud (www.smh.com.au)^ How 'voter fraud' crusades undermine voting rights (theconversation.com)^ Diary of a Foreign Minister (www.newsouthbooks.com.au)^ Complacency, conflict and dodging nuclear cataclysm: the not so great power politics of China, the US and Australia (theconversation.com)
