As Australia faces a new year of fiscal restraint, sobering economic news and reduced circumstances, it’s interesting to reflect on the difference between the Abbott government and that of Rudd/Gillard/Rudd. One of the starkest metamorphoses is in the presentations of the different Treasurers. Wayne Swan grasped numbers floating in a sea of hope and tried to convince us that the future was still ours to command; Joe Hockey, on the other hand, deals in reality, however awful, because he treats Australians like adults.
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