GOOD TIMING, GOOD POLITICS

David Speers, Sky News Political Editor

5 November 2010

Success in politics is probably 50% hard work and 50% good timing.

Joe Hockey's reaped the rewards of both this week.

Yes his initial attack on the banks was clumsy and over the top.

But he put some hard work into his 9 point plan.

The government hasn't been able to identify any real problems with the plan and will probably come up with some similar recommendations when Wayne Swan reveals his competition reforms next month.

But good timing has also played its part.

Had the Reserve Bank kept interest rates on hold for another month, Joe Hockey would have continued to cop criticism from Labor and from within his own ranks.

But the RBA took the markets (and the government it would seem) by surprise.

The Commonwealth Bank's additional increase made Hockey look even more politically astute.

The Shadow Treasurer knows what he's talking about when it comes to the banks.

He was a banking and finance lawyer before entering politics and served as Financial Services Minister in the Howard Government.

His wife Melissa is also a highly successful merchant banker.

She's head of foreign exchange trading at Deutsche Bank.

Although you don't hear Joe boasting about that at the moment.

Share your thoughts on this blog:

Comments are moderated and will not appear until they have been approved.

diana, Sydney (6 November 2010 4:37PM) wrote:
I agree with your comments in this article. Labor is ineffectual in government and the Opposition is looking stronger by the day. Any attempts by the media to prop up this Labor government will look foolish as the public is waking up to this. The Coalition almost won the last election after only one-term of Labor, and they succeeded in reducing Labor to a minority government. If an election were held now, the Coalition would probably win as evidenced by the latest Newspoll.