I’ve been listening very hard to Joe Hockey recently.

Way back, whilst still in opposition, he made that famous “it’s the end of the age of entitlement” speech in London. Lately he’s been strongly on the same theme. He argues that the Government is out of money and can no longer support much of what has been supported hitherto.

So, Government has no money to support foreign car makers GM, Ford and Toyota; SPC Ardmona; Qantas; or pretty much any business for that matter. Health spending cannot be sustained so we might soon have to pay (more) to go to the doctor. The population is ageing so pensions are no longer affordable and the entitlement age will have to go up to 70 to save money. The public service will have to be downsized (and services cut). You’ve heard them all.

(The vaunted Commission of Audit was due to deliver an interim report in January. It’s likely to recommend harsh Government spending cuts all over the place. But still no report, and it’s now March, the month the final report is due.)

Nevertheless, to this point in his argument, I think much of what Joe says is correct. The so called social welfare safety net has been gamed and distorted over many years, mostly by competitive politics, into being much more than a safety net for the genuinely needy. Joe’s right to call “time”. He’s right to say we can’t have what we can’t pay for.

But then Joe wanders into Wonderland instead of driving the argument on to where it logically ends: we’ve lived high on the hog and we have too much debt; Government services have to go down and taxes up; the economy is changing alright, and living standards will fall. We’re all in this together: get used to it!

Wandering in political Wonderland, Joe seems to ramble on in hope about new jobs in new 21st century industries. (Like what? … have you heard even one suggested?). He struts the G20 stage with fluffy aspirations about 2% more economic growth over 5 years, thus supposedly creating huge numbers of new jobs. He talks vaguely about re-structuring the economy, (but that seems mostly to be code for screwing down wages). He waves around the magic word “productivity” without seeming to understand what it means; without acknowledging what the all the implications of improving it are; and probably hoping no-one calls him out on the subject. He tries to comfort us that everything will be alright, that things will get back to how they used to be.

All of which seems to me to totally miss the points that technology, globalization of the economy, and the rise of Asia (where they can now do everything we can do, better and cheaper, except farm and mine), have changed the outlook for Australia forever.

That’s the reality. Joe needs to face up to it. We all do.