Getting frequent calls from Keating – or Costello – is all part of being treasurer

1 month ago 7

There aren’t that many people used to the life of a federal treasurer.

The long, long hours throwing together budgets, keeping a tab on the desires of spendthrift ministers, aligning politics with economics while being beholden to events way beyond your control, make the job of treasurer the most challenging in a government.

A prime minister has successfully climbed the greasy pole of politics to sit at the top. The treasurer, many of whom hanker to climb that same pole, has to mix politics with the laws of economics. Often, they don’t mix.

Since Federation, just 41 men have been treasurer – from Bob Hawke, who held the title for just a single day between Paul Keating and John Kerin, to Peter Costello, who served 11 years and 267 days.

And over the years, each has in some way leant on those who have gone before.

This week, Jim Chalmers revealed how closely Keating had been involved in his superannuation tax overhaul for those with more than $3 million in their retirement nest eggs.

Paul Keating and Jim Chalmers at the VISY/AFR Roundtable in August 2022.

“I appreciate the opportunity to talk about super with him from time to time – sometimes very frequently – including last week to talk to him about the economy more broadly and my job as treasurer more broadly,” he said on Tuesday.

Chalmers, whose doctoral thesis was titled “Brawler statesman: Paul Keating and prime ministerial leadership in Australia”, has had plenty of advice from Keating over superannuation.

That was always to be expected, given Keating’s part in setting up Australia’s unique super system, his role in some of the nation’s most important economic and fiscal transformations, and the way he keeps an eye on any Labor treasury spokesman.

Keating’s interest in the super changes has been high.

But Keating doesn’t confine his advice to those from Labor or to a single issue such as superannuation. Over the years, he has offered advice to many treasurers, federal and state – including former Liberal NSW premier and treasurer Dominic Perrottet.

Keating is not alone among former treasurers in giving advice or just listening patiently.

On his first day as treasurer, Josh Frydenberg caught up with Costello for a coffee and some smashed avo in a Hawthorn cafe.

Declaring Costello to be Australia’s greatest living treasurer, Frydenberg signalled his predecessor would be on his speed dial.

“I’ll be turning to Peter for advice as I begin my role as treasurer in the Morrison government,” he said.

Hockey also heard from his Liberal predecessor. After his disastrous 2014 budget, Hockey talked up John Howard’s 1978 budget speech, which contained one of the biggest broken election promises in Australian political history.

Costello was helped by the fact that his boss had served as treasurer in the Fraser government.

But the issues that confronted Howard in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the federal government set a cap on mortgage interest rates, were a mile away from Costello’s challenges, which included the dotcom bust, the East Asian financial crisis, and the largest mining boom in 150 years.

It can be a lonely job as treasurer. Even if the advice may not be welcome, words from someone who understands the pressure can come in handy.

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