Hockey grilled on BBC

Treasurer Joe Hockey has been
bombarded with questions on climate change, the economy and Australia's
relationship with China during an interview on the BBC World News airing
at 2:30pm and 7.30pm on Tuesday.
    Treasurer Joe Hockey has denied that Australia is the highest
    greenhouse gas emitting country in the OECD per capita, telling a
    British journalist the statement is "absolutely ridiculous".



    He has also refused to explicitly back the democracy movement
    in Hong Kong, and says Australia's free trade negotiations with China
    will not be damaged by China's shock move last week to introduce new
    tariffs on imports of Australian coal.




    On his first trip to London since becoming treasurer, Mr
    Hockey has also told an audience at the Institute of Economic Affairs
    that Australia's Reserve Bank has only a "limited capacity" to stimulate
    economic growth and Australia can no longer afford a "she'll be right"
    approach if it wants to avoid recession or high unemployment.





    Joe Hockey, currently on a tour of the US and the UK, has rejected claims Australia is "one of the dirtiest most greenhouse gas-emitting countries in OECD".
    Joe Hockey, currently on a tour of the US and the UK,
    has rejected claims Australia is "one of the dirtiest most greenhouse
    gas-emitting countries in OECD". Photo: AP


    On the BBC's Hardtalk program recorded overnight, Mr Hockey faced tough questions about Prime Minister Tony Abbott's views on coal, Clive Palmer's recent explosive appearance on the ABC's Q&A
    during which he called the Chinese government "mongrels who shoot their
    own people," and Labor leader Bill Shorten's criticism that Australia
    is now seen as the climate change sceptic capital of the world.




    He told BBC host Stephen Sackur that Europeans had a
    "fundamental misunderstanding" of Australia's economic ties with Asia,
    particularly China, and the view that Australia had a "massive reliance
    and dependence" on China for exports was a "complete misread".



    He also laughed at the suggestion that Australia was "one of
    the dirtiest most greenhouse gas-emitting countries in OECD group of
    developed countries".



    "The comment you just made is absolutely ridiculous," Mr Hockey told Sackur.



    "We've got a small population and very large land mass and we
    are an exporter of energy, so that measurement is a falsehood in a
    sense because it does not properly reflect exactly what our economy is,"
    Mr Hockey said.



    "Australia is a significant exporter of energy and, in fact,
    when it comes to coal we produce some of the cleanest coal, if that term
    can be used, the cleanest coal in the world."



    His comments contradict the Garnaut Climate Change Review, which says Australia was the highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the OECD, even without exports of energy.



    "Australia's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are the
    highest of any OECD country and are among the highest in the world," the
    review says.



    "Australia's per capita emissions are nearly twice the OECD average and more than four times the world average."



    When asked on the BBC program, which will air in full on BBC
    World News on Tuesday evening, about China's surprise decision last week
    to introduce 3 per cent and 6 per cent tariffs on coal imports, Mr
    Hockey said Australia had no political problem with China at the moment.



    But he would not say if negotiations with China on a free
    trade agreement would end if there was no agreement by the end of this
    year.



    Mr Hockey also avoided explicitly backing the democracy
    movement in Hong Kong, saying only that it was "fair comment" that the
    Chinese must let genuine democracy reign there.



    At a different event, Mr Hockey told an audience at the
    Institute of Economic Affairs that the Reserve Bank has only a "limited
    capacity" to stimulate economic growth.



    He also said sustained low interest rates had seen wealthier Australians who own assets become wealthier.



    Reviving his infamous Age of Entitlement speech, which he
    gave to the same organisation in 2012, Mr Hockey said the crux of his
    speech - that governments cannot keep borrowing money from future
    citizens to pay for today's entitlements -  "remains a self-evident
    truth".



    But he said it requires "difficult and consistent decision making" and "a fair measure of bipartisan support". 



    Mr Hockey has been strongly criticised in recent days for suggesting Labor leader Bill Shorten should commit to backing stalled separate budget measures to help pay for the Iraq mission, if Labor is "honest" about its bipartisan support.   



    But Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to endorse his
    Treasurer's call and instead described opposition leader Bill Shorten as
    a "patriot".



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