Joe Hockey grilled on ABC's 7.30

Minutes after handing down the Budget,
treasurer Joe Hockey received a grilling from ABC 7.30 presenter Sarah
Ferguson about the government's new taxes and broken promises.
Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has begun the hard sell of his
tough first budget, sweating his way through the first of many
post-budget interviews.




An unusually subdued Mr Hockey faced the ABC's Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 just moments after his budget speech.





Joe Hockey faces Sarah Ferguson on Budget night.
Joe Hockey faces Sarah Ferguson on Budget night.


Ms Ferguson gave him no reprieve, firing the first shot with
her opening question: ‘‘Is it liberating for a politician to decide
election promises don’t matter?’’




As he sat still in the opposite chair, hands clasped between his legs, Mr Hockey said he would not ‘‘accept the question’’.



"I don't accept that question. The biggest, most significant
promise we made was to fix the budget and strengthen the Australian
economy, and we will."



But the Treasurer soon freed his hands as he set about
defending his government's first budget. A budget that included some
controversial measures like the new Medicare co-payment.



‘‘What we’re doing is good policy,’’ he said.



But Ms Ferguson was relentless, orchestrating this abrasive exchange:



Hockey: ‘‘There are only two tax adjustments.’’



Ferguson: ‘‘Is that what we’re going to call them now?"



Hockey: ‘‘Of any substance, any tax changes, if you like, or whatever you’d like to call it.’’



Ferguson: ‘‘New taxes.’’



Hockey: ‘‘There’s two. There’s actually fewer than any of the previous Budgets from the previous government.’’



Ferguson: ‘‘They’re still taxes. I don’t need to teach you, Treasurer, what a tax is.’’



Ms Ferguson grilled him on the government's decison to cut $80 billion from schools and hospitals over ten years.



"Are you starving the states so they beg you, effectively, to raise the GST?" she asked.



"That's up to them, they are responsible for schools and hospitals."



It might just have been an off night for the Treasurer. His
speech in Parliament was also with a tired voice in a performance that
fell short of his typically confident appearances in question time.



On Wednesday, Mr Hockey hit the airwaves, appearing on ABC's Radio National and AM, Sky News and commercial radio.



At 12.30pm he will speak in Parliament House's Great Hall in
the traditional treasurer's post-budget address to the National Press
Club.



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