Federal treasurer Joe Hockey came out strongly against claims that he has offered cash for access deals to top-level lobbyists today, describing the allegations originally published in the Fairfax press as “offensive and repugnant”.

Hockey’s description comes hot on the heels of a Friday statement that he found the windfarms on Lake George, near the nation’s capital, “utterly offensive” but was powerless to close them down. This got us wondering: what else does the treasurer find offensive?

Offensive: Self governance in Indigenous Australia

In a discussion with Andrew Bolt in January 2012 about constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, Hockey expressed reservations about minority groups having their own legal or governance systems, which Bolt described as a kind of “apartheid justice”.

“In many cases I would agree with you,” he told Bolt. “I always had a problem with ATSIC [the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Council] for example, and the way it was not open to the general scrutiny that other parts of government were. The concept of self-governance, from my perspective, outside of our current governance structures, I find offensive.”

Offensive: Not enough centralised governance in Afghanistan

Back in 2010, Hockey spoke in parliament on the ongoing struggle for democracy in Afghanistan: “For all their failings, the Taliban are providing opportunities where the Afghan government is not — opportunities that will enshrine extremist and totalitarian beliefs among the next generation. Young Afghans are asking themselves ‘What is the central government doing for me?’ and coming up with nothing.”

“The Afghan government has been let down time and time again by the offensive actions of Hamid Karzai and his corrupt and incompetent administration,” he wrote.

Offensive: Some of the things the writer Bob Ellis said about Alan Jones’ 'died of shame' comments

During a doorstop interview in late 2012, Hockey was asked whether he would boycott Alan Jones’ radio programme after the broadcaster said former prime minister Julia Gillard’s father had “died of shame”. “[The comments] were hurtful, they were ill-considered, they were nasty,” Hockey said.



“[Labor] haven’t banned Bob Ellis or anyone else from speaking at Labor party events and some of the things he has said on the same matter, as I read it, are quite offensive.”

“As I said, in my case - I don't want to offend anyone - in my case, when we had three children under five, we had to go out and buy new prams, new cots, car seats seemed to be bigger and you have to go through all sorts of different car seats now at different ages…”

Offensive: Jumping in to lend money to Greece and the IMF to bail them out of a crisis of their own creation

When in 2011 Labor announced it was prepared to commit more money to the bailout of Eurozone countries, Hockey told journalists that “Australians will rightly be angry that … their prime minister is going and offering taxpayer money to the biggest economy in the world, the Eurozone, to bail them out from their own manmade crisis.”

“I find it offensive on behalf of Australian taxpayers that the prime minister has just jumped into this issue without properly considering the facts,” he said.

After Gillard’s 2012 comments that Tony Abbott should “get off Sydney’s North Shore and go and talk to some real families”, Hockey came to his defence. “You know what, I think all Australians should be offended,” he said. “I despise this class warfare line.”

Offensive: a menu that made sexist remarks about Gillard at a Liberal party fundraiser

"I don't recall ever seeing any such menu. It is offensive and inappropriate whenever it was put out and it is now", Hockey tweeted.

Offensive: 'offensive' comments made about Peta Credlin, prime minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, at a union dinner in 2012

“They are trying to set a new benchmark - they can’t hold that benchmark themselves. What a surprise.”

Offensive: Reopening Manus Island detention centre without getting approval from the Papua New Guinean government

"[O]ur reputation in the [Asia-Pacific] region is in tatters because not only did we insult the East Timorese by not asking them about the East Timor solution, not only did we offend the Papua New Guineans by saying we’re going to reopen Manus without getting government approval from them, not only did we stop food supplies to Indonesia overnight, but we’ve now entered into a deal with Malaysia and the government has acted ultra vires – it’s actually acted beyond its powers. How extraordinarily embarrassing for us."