There is a grain of truth (for once) in Julia Gillard’s assertion that for Peter Costello ‘it was easy to be Treasurer’. Certainly, the debt Paul Keating left behind pales into insignificance compared to the supermassive black hole bequeathed to us by the Rudd/Gillard/Swan freakshow. That Joe Hockey has had his ups and downs wrestling with this beast is not surprising – indeed, Mr Hockey’s performance would be impressive if it weren’t competing with the achievements of Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop.