Brutus:
'There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.'
— Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Joe Hockey might not know his Shakespeare well but he would probably agree. Timing is all.
Hockey gave his farewell speech in parliament yesterday. He had resigned — after being ousted as treasurer by Turnbull — to take up a plum, taxpayer-funded ambassadorial position in Washington in the New Year, replacing the greatest ALP prime minister we never had, Kim Beazley, as well as gifting Malcolm with a by-election in his first weeks as prime minister.
So many chances, so many slips. After building a reputation as a good guy politician on Sunrise with his 'good mate' Kevin Rudd, he blew it by rescuing Rudd from drowning in a flooded river on their well-publicised Kokoda Trail expedition in 2006. Kevin 07 went on to prove he could win an election but not run a government very well, culminating in his removal by Julia Gillard, and hers in Kevin's counter-coup in 2013. As he mused today, the leaders' revolving door shows no sign of not swingeing.
Kindly Uncle Joe, the most popular politician in Australia in 2009, missed another chance when he threw his hat into the ring to become leader of the opposition after Malcolm Turnbull lost the confidence of the right wing of the Coalition over the emissions trading scheme. Joe favoured this to, yet suggested to the crew on 1 December that it should be left to a conscience vote, and ended up being eliminated on the first ballot. Abbott then beat Turnbull by just one vote, presumably his own.
Hockey's next chance was just after the 2013 Coalition win when as treasurer he introduced his first blunderbuss budget. It's normal for incoming treasurers to bring in tough financial measures and unpopular cuts at the early stage of a new government but Hockey, we gather with Abbott's support, ushered in such a savage budget, with such a focus on the young, aged and vulnerable, and breaking so many pre-election promises, that the people's trust in 'the man of the people' was irreparably broken.
It didn't help that he issued a self-aggrandising biography shortly afterwards which claimed not only that Hockey thought he should be the next prime minister but that he had wanted to bring in an even tougher budget. As the ill-judged book recorded, Hockey was not only a family-made multimillionaire but also one who had acquired his Canberra home at a rock bottom price by misrepresenting by omission his and his father's bona fides to the vendor. Not, perhaps, such a good uncle at all.
From this point on it has been downhill. He notoriously claimed that poor people don't drive cars much; that the 'age of entitlement' was over, while he was claiming daily living-away-from-home allowances in the house his wife owned; and even that housing was not unaffordable because all that was really required was to get a really good job. Joe's toes were clearly picking at his teeth.
It is tempting to imagine that on the day that Abbott was voted out of the leadership in favour of Turnbull, the drinks party in the PM's office might have included the ghost of Mr Hockey, who might even have danced on a certain marble table top.
There was genuine goodwill for the Hockey who, in parliament yesterday, remembered introducing the fairness test to work choices 'too late' while acknowledging that it had gone too far. But some commentators noted he now rued the loss of benefits brought in under the ALP such as well subsidised medical costs, and environmental and superannuation protections, which he denounced as treasurer.
Which is the real Joe? In my not particularly humble opinion his metamorphosis from genial giant (albeit one with a multi-million dollar property portfolio) to a lead-footed fiscal Scrooge is entirely due to his ill-judged and unreciprocated loyalty to Abbott who, whatever his skills and talents, has no sense for an economy or what makes economics a very fine art.
In memory of the kindly smiling television entertainer he once was, let us hope Hockey's diplomatic success will turn on his need to be liked, not misplaced personal loyalty to those who do not deserve it, or his native political acuity. Outside politics, let him find his true self, and be whatever that is.
Moira Rayner is a barrister and writer.