The Australian’s Dennis Shanahan has reported that Treasurer Joe Hockey’s new authorised biography – Hockey: Not Your Average Joe – has invoked the wrath of the Coalition party room, with many viewing Hockey’s public statements as an act of self-indulgent treachery:
That Hockey wanted an even tougher budget with even more pain not only hurts him and the “team” in the eyes of his cabinet colleagues, it is a clear inference that Tony Abbott was not up to the task.
…coming after a flawed political selling of a budget that had much to economically recommend it, some of Hockey’s cabinet colleagues see the Treasurer’s ratification of the book’s conclusions as a final act of self-indulgence and what must be the last act of indulgence from Abbott.
That the budget has soured the Coalition’s public standing is an understatement…
Hockey has made life more difficult for Abbott, drawn Credlin further into dangerous cabinet infighting and created sympathy for Turnbull…
I must admit, I was surprised when I heard that Hockey had authorised a biography so early into his tenure as Treasurer. Usually, these kind of books are released towards the end, or after, one’s reign.
The logical question then follows: why has Hockey released such a book, particularly given it risks undermining Tony Abbott’s leadership and inflaming relations within the Coalition? One can only guess that Hockey does not believe that Abbott is the right man for the job and/or he has his sights set firmly on the leadership.
That is unless Hockey is merely naive, in which case the timing of the book’s release represents a genuine political clanger. The book highlights that division, infighting and general backroom disloyalty is not confined to Labor.
