A key reason why I gave up a cushy job in the private sector to pursue a career in the alternative media was to influence policy debate in areas that I perceive to be important to both the national interest and Australia’s social fabric.
I’d like to think that yesterday I (along with Matt Cowgill) scored a small victory in getting the Federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey, to state today that the proposal to sell-off Australia’s HECS debts to the private sector is “not current Coalition policy”, despite the usual MSM echo chamber.
Of course, whether we actually influenced the Government on this matter is debatable. And claiming that selling-off HECS debts “is not current Coalition policy” is a lot different to an unequivocal denouncement, suggesting the proposal could rear its ugly head sometime in the near future.
The new Treasurer’s circle of confidence comprises a number of players from the financial sector. According to Chris Joye today in the AFR, Hockey’s chief of staff, Grant Lovett, ran fixed-income at investment bank UBS. And Hockey’s wife, Melissa Babbage, ran foreign exchange at Deutsche Bank. Such experience will assist with Hockey’s understanding of financial markets but the national interest must be his touchstone (as must theirs).
For now at least, the Coalition’s hosing-down of speculation that it plans to privatise student debts is a small victory for longer-term fiscal prudence.
unconventionaleconomist@hotmail.com
