Joseph Benedict Hockey was born on 2 August 1965 and is an Australian former politician and diplomat.
52 Facts About Joe Hockey
2.
Joe Hockey was the Member of Parliament for North Sydney from 1996 until 2015.
3.
Joe Hockey was the Treasurer of Australia in the Abbott government from 18 September 2013 until September 2015 when he resigned from Cabinet, having refused an alternative offer from the incoming Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
4.
Joe Hockey previously served as the Minister for Human Services and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Howard government.
5.
Joe Hockey served as Ambassador of Australia to the United States from January 2016 until January 2020.
6.
Joe Hockey was born the youngest of four siblings in North Sydney to Australian mother, Beverley, and Bethlehem Armenian father, Richard Hokeidonian, who was born in Mandatory Palestine.
7.
Joe Hockey was named after Joseph Benedict Chifley, the post-war prime minister whose immigration policies allowed for his father to enter Australia.
8.
Joe Hockey attended St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point and the University of Sydney, residing at St John's College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws.
9.
In 1987, Joe Hockey protested at Bob Hawke's introduction of university fees.
10.
Towards the end of his term as SRC President, the Australian Labor Party's Deputy Prime Minister Lionel Bowen phoned Joe Hockey and invited him to join the ALP.
11.
Joe Hockey researched the philosophies of John Stuart Mill and decided to join the Liberal Party.
12.
Joe Hockey worked as a policy advisor to Premier John Fahey before the 1995 New South Wales state election.
13.
Joe Hockey became the president of the NSW Young Liberals and had a position in Nick Greiner's state government, reforming the financial and business structure of the state.
14.
Joe Hockey was preselected as a Liberal Party of Australia candidate for the 1996 election in the Division of North Sydney when aged just 29.
15.
Joe Hockey faced little preselection competition, since the seat's incumbent independent, Ted Mack, was thought to be unbeatable.
16.
However, Mack did not renominate; had his intentions been known earlier, it was widely believed at the time that Joe Hockey would have faced a more rigorous preselection contest for what has traditionally been a "blue ribbon" Liberal seat.
17.
Joe Hockey actually won 57.8 percent of the primary vote, more than enough to win the seat outright without the need for preferences.
18.
Joe Hockey branded himself as an independent in areas like North Sydney and McMahons Point.
19.
Joe Hockey made use of his parents' reputation within the local community and his business connections to successfully connect with supporters and volunteers - giving out umbrellas and other souvenirs.
20.
Joe Hockey made his maiden speech in September 1996, highlighting modern liberalism, composed of recognition of the rights of the individual, parliamentary democracy, and committing to improve society through reform.
21.
Joe Hockey highlighted his father's heritage, and highlighted barriers against women achieving success.
22.
When HIH Insurance went bankrupt in March 2001, Joe Hockey was the minister responsible for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which oversaw HIH.
23.
In 2004 as Human Services Minister, Joe Hockey proposed an "Access Card" and spent $3 million advertising the card before submitting the legislation to parliament.
24.
In December 2007, Joe Hockey was made Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing and Manager of Opposition Business in the House.
25.
Joe Hockey became Shadow Treasurer in February 2009 when Julie Bishop stepped down from the portfolio.
26.
Joe Hockey denied any interest to move into state politics.
27.
However, Joe Hockey announced that he had no intention to challenge for the leadership.
28.
On 9 November 2009, Joe Hockey gave a speech, "In Defence of God", at the Sydney Institute.
29.
Joe Hockey had been a consistent supporter of the ETS.
30.
On 1 December 2009, Joe Hockey chose to include his candidacy in a party room ballot to determine the leadership of the Liberal Party.
31.
Joe Hockey was eliminated in the first round of the ballot, with the eventual winner being Abbott.
32.
Joe Hockey later said that "quotas must be a last resort".
33.
Joe Hockey gave a speech to the Grattan Institute on 11 March 2010 called "In Defence of Liberty".
34.
Biographer Madonna King points out "Australia's Future Engagement in the Asian Century" and "The Future of Free Markets, Global Trade and Commerce" as other key speeches from this three-year period of Joe Hockey trying to show what he stood for.
35.
On 17 April 2012, Joe Hockey gave a speech at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.
36.
Joe Hockey warned Australians that the time to become self-sufficient was at hand and that the government could not afford to give "universal payments" to Australians.
37.
On 26 April 2012, Joe Hockey gave a speech, "The Future of Australian Diversity", at the Islamic Council of Victoria.
38.
The Coalition won government at the 2013 election, and Joe Hockey was named Treasurer.
39.
Joe Hockey's approach has been described by sociology lecturer Verity Archer as being like former US President Richard Nixon's, "using claims of a budget emergency" to cut welfare.
40.
Michael Pascoe, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, regards Joe Hockey as being saddled with policies that were fiscally irresponsible, but designed to win support, giving as an example the scrapping of the price on carbon.
41.
Joe Hockey was considered by his colleagues to have made a poor case for the economic reforms in the 2014 budget.
42.
In June 2015, Joe Hockey was criticised over his response to housing affordability issues, where he advised first home buyers to "get a good job that pays good money".
43.
Joe Hockey gave his final speech to parliament on 21 October 2015.
44.
Joe Hockey resigned from parliament on 23 October 2015 which triggered the 2015 North Sydney by-election which was won by Trent Zimmerman.
45.
Joe Hockey met with Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus for discussions.
46.
At the start of 2020, Joe Hockey planned to continue staying and working in the United States for several years after his role as ambassador to the United States.
47.
Joe Hockey made unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the Presidential vote of the 2020 United States elections.
48.
Joe Hockey met Melissa Babbage, his future wife, in 1991 at a Young Liberals state convention.
49.
In 1994, Joe Hockey married Babbage, an investment banker, later head of foreign exchange and global finance at Deutsche Bank.
50.
Joe Hockey has walked the Kokoda Track and has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for medical equipment.
51.
In 2014, Joe Hockey launched defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media over an article published in its newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, titled Treasurer for sale, which he said falsely implied that he accepted bribes paid to influence his decisions and that he corruptly sold privileged access to a select group of Liberal Party donors.
52.
In June 2015, the judge partially ruled in favour of Joe Hockey, ruling that where the headline had been seen without the article, it was defamatory, and awarded Joe Hockey $200,000 in damages.