Joe Hockey dismisses reports colleagues want him replaced as 'gossip'

Updated

Treasurer Joe Hockey has dismissed reports that some of his Coalition colleagues want him replaced as "static" and "gossip", as the Government struggles to break free of its leadership turmoil.

One minister has told the ABC the Treasurer's job should go to Communications Minister and former leader Malcolm Turnbull, amid more widespread discontent on the backbench about the performance of Mr Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

This morning Mr Turnbull did not deny that colleagues had sounded him out about the job but said he had not approached Mr Abbott about it.

Two days ago Mr Abbott survived a partyroom motion to spill the leadership 61 to 39 and declared that "good government starts today".

Since then the focus has turned to Mr Hockey's future.

This morning he has waved off questions about his longevity in the job.

"Get over the gossip, focus on the nation," he told reporters in Canberra.

An interview on Melbourne's 3AW began with announcer Neil Mitchell putting to Mr Hockey that he had quickly gone from rooster to feather duster.

"Whether I was a rooster or a feather duster, I think I'm still doing my job," Mr Hockey replied.

He said he "hoped" to do the job long term.

"I am the Treasurer, I will be the Treasurer and I'm going to continue to do the Treasurer's role," he said.

"All the static I'm ignoring - I've got a job to do.

"I enjoy the privilege and the honour and I am going to keep going. Because that's what people say to me on the streets - 'keep going Joe'."

People playing 'fantasy football', Turnbull says

Mr Turnbull expressed complete confidence in Mr Hockey but he also confirmed that people were playing "fantasy football" over the ministerial team.

"I have never asked the prime minister or suggested to the prime minister that he should appoint me treasurer," he said.

"The prime minister has never asked me or suggested to me, in any way, that he would appoint me treasurer.

"Everyone's expressing views, there's a sort of fantasy football going on."

But he did not address the question about whether senior colleagues had approached him.

"I'm happy to tell you what I've said, but I'm not going to break the confidence of any of my colleagues," Mr Turnbull said.

Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer, whose party holds crucial votes on the split Senate crossbench, has called for Mr Hockey to be sacked.

"If he continues his cuts, he'll destroy demand, collapse the economy and we'll never get back to surplus," Mr Palmer told ABC News Breakfast.

"We live in a democracy, goodbye Joe Hockey."

Mr Hockey responded, "He wants to borrow more money, he doesn't have to pay it back."

Budget will stay in red without last year's changes: Hockey

Mr Hockey is preparing his second budget, to be handed down in May, while still pushing to have key measures of last year's budget passed by the Senate, including the higher education package.

He repeated what he had told his Coalition colleagues yesterday: that the budget will stay in the red without those major changes.

"There is no choice, if we do not get on with the job in partnership with the Labor Party, the Greens and the independents, in getting savings through the Senate, then Australia will never get back to surplus," he said.

"And there is no easy path."

He is also standing by the Government's higher education package, which is back before Parliament.

"We need to deliver these changes in order to strengthen the budget and to strengthen the higher education system," Mr Hockey said.

The Government has signalled its second budget will focus on changes to child care and deliver a tax cut to small business.

The Greens and crossbencher Nick Xenophon have backed the idea of lower taxes for small businesses.

But on the amount of tax paid for big business Mr Hockey would only repeat that "big business will not be paying anymore tax than they are paying today."

The issue has come into play since the Government dumped its paid parental leave scheme, which was to have been partly funded by a levy on big business, offset by a tax cut.

The levy will not be charged, but the Government has not yet revealed whether the tax cut will stay or go.

Instead of the PPL, the focus has switched to the Government's "families" package, which Mr Hockey says will "reformulate" childcare subsidies.

He rejected the suggestion that it was unfair to subsidise high earners for their childcare costs.

"It is a reasonable question - but forget that it's a subsidy for child care; reflect on the fact that we need people to go to work," he said.

"It comes down to participation in work and child care is vitally important."

He would not say if any cuts to child care were under consideration.

"Child care needs to be reformulated so that it can actually be delivered on a sustainable basis but be more flexible and more accommodating for the needs of women," he said.

Topics: federal-government, government-and-politics, hockey-joe, abbott-tony, liberals, australia

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