Joe Hockey’s own goal on ABC’s luvvie-fest

ABC managing ­director Mark Scott is to order a review of issues covered on the broadcaster’s flagship program Q&A, after facing accusations the program has a left-leaning bias.

What another waste of taxpayer’s money. On past form the review will provide a whitewash or at best an ambiguous finding ­replete with homilies about free speech and bias being in the eye of the beholder. Yet any viewer of the show would have noted that the panel is almost inevitably stacked, the audience (which self nominates its political leanings) favours those with inner-urban views characteristic of those who live near the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters, and the supercilious host, Tony Jones, is reliably supportive of the Left on social and economic issues. A disciplined conservative government should ask itself why its MPs support this pretentious form of entertainment and find it appealing to mix it with the kumbaya crowd and provide unneeded distractions from the very real issues facing the nation. It cannot be that they feel some sympathy for the ABC’s overall poor ratings. Treasurer Joe Hockey fell for the broadcaster’s honey trap and wound up temporarily derailing the government’s big picture tax strategy with his populist response to an audience member’s query about the GST on female sanitary products. He must have been blinded by the early success of this year’s Budget. No matter what the ABC’s deluded fact finders may think, the GST is in the hands of the states and it up to the states to agree on any changes to its structure, including ­exemptions. Hockey’s job is to think macro, not micro reform, yet he was blindsided by a young woman who should have been given a lecture on Labor’s debt legacy, Labor’s failure to ­address GST anomalies, and the Abbott government’s plan to resolve the problem despite the obdurate opposition and the bizarre membership of the Senate crossbench. Australia has a tax problem which won’t be resolved by granting more GST exemptions, it needs to wind back ­existing exemptions. As women’s sanitary products are subjected to the GST but condoms aren’t, the solution is clear — apply the GST to condoms. That way he and the government will be seen to be treating everyone equally. Forget Labor’s spurious ­argument about the Netflix tax providing the trade-off. That’s a rubbish solution that swaps revenues but doesn’t do anything for real tax reform. Hockey should be looking to take items off the tax-free table, not put more on the ­exemptions list. He should be looking to the states to increase the GST so he can cut personal income tax — the greatest impediment to enterprise and investment. Even my former colleague, economics writer Jessica ­Irvine, agrees that removing the GST on tampons and similar products is at best a “tokenistic distraction”. After a faltering start at the beginning of the year, the ­Abbott government showed signs of focus. Hockey’s wandering into the minefields of inane student economics and Labor’s diverting attempt to pander to those seeking to redefine the roles of men and women in marriage would indicate that its attention is wandering. The UK’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron showed what is necessary during his recent successful re-election campaign. After similar fumblings with value-bereaved platitudinous policies, and with assistance from international advisory firm Crosby-Textor, he concentrated on issues of significance to voters. “Some pundits might call this blue-collar conservatism or being on the side of hardworking taxpayers,” he said of his approach. “I would call it being the real party of working people. Giving more and more people the dignity of work.” When pressed, he explained that his government would concentrate on “the down-to-earth bread-and-butter issues that we were elected to deliver on. That is what we have to do in this parliament”. Last week, in her traditional speech, the Queen outlined her new government’s ­approach and ticked off a ­number of those bread-and-butter issues. These included a freeze on income tax, VAT and national insurance increases for five years, a freeze on working age benefits, tax credits and child benefit for two years, and 30 hours of free childcare a week for three and four-year-olds by 2017. Significantly, the amount a single household can claim in benefits will be reduced from £26,000 to £23,000 and housing association tenants will be given the right-to-buy their homes. Tough love but the message that the government is looking after “hard working” people and not those who want to sit at home on welfare resonated with voters during the election, particularly with those in the heartland where marginal seats had been won from ­Labour. Cameron was greatly helped by his hapless ­­opponent, Labour’s Ed Miliband, but Prime Minister Tony ­Abbott has a similar gift in ­Opposition Leader Bill ­Shorten. With an election within less than 18 months, he and his team have to start displaying the same sort of discipline and clarity of message that proved a winner for Cameron. Even if that means leaving the Left’s overpaid media ­stooges in Ultimo talking tampons to each other around an empty chair.