Joe Hockey’s Stanwell Park property.Source: Supplied
JOE Hockey is perhaps the richest treasurer since Edward “Red Ted” Theodore of the 1930s, with property estimated to be worth well over $10 million.
Delivering his budget address on Tuesday night, the man charged with steering the nation through what he calls a budget emergency described Australians as a nation of “lifters, not leaners” and said everyone needed to feel the pain of austerity measures. Searches show the austerity budget measures will have a limited impact on the Treasurer and his family, who live in a Sydney mansion worth $6m, own a beachside home south of Sydney and have Queensland cattle properties worth more than $2m.
Unlike Theodore — the Depression-era treasurer who made a killing on coalmines through questionable deals with the Queensland government and ended up in business with Frank Packer — most of Mr Hockey’s assets were accumulated by his multi-millionaire investment banker wife. The main Hockey home in Sydney’s elite Hunters Hill was bought in 2004 in the name of Mr Hockey’s wife, Melissa Babbage, for $3.5m.
Property agents yesterday estimated the expansive, 1906-built home would be worth between $5m and $6m in today’s market.
Also owned by Ms Babbage is a six-bedroom, two-bathroom home at the prized beach enclave of Stanwell Park, south of Sydney. Ms Babbage paid $782,500 for the property in 2002 and it is currently estimated to be worth more than $1.5m. The Hockeys also own several cattle properties at Malanda, in north Queensland. Those properties, which run cattle and include a house, are estimated to be worth $2.5m or more. In addition to those property assets, the Hockeys hold a family trust and a self-managed super fund.
In Mr Hockey’s parliamentary pecuniary interests register, the Treasurer notes those assets are: “Managed solely by spouse — I am unaware of interests.”
Under budget measures, Mr Hockey’s pay will be frozen for a year, along with that of all parliamentarians, and his access to business-class travel on the public purse when he retires will be severely curtailed, after the government clamped down on the gold pass system.
Mr Hockey’s parliamentary income is $365,868, calculated on a base salary of $195,130, plus 87.5 per cent for holding the position of Treasurer. Under the high-income earner tax levy of 2 per cent on each dollar earned above $180,000, Mr Hockey would pay a levy of $3717.
The Treasurer’s office declined to comment when contacted by The Weekend Australian yesterday.
Included in Mr Hockey’s pecuniary interests register is a home in the ACT owned jointly by Mr Hockey and Ms Babbage.
Mr Hockey’s declared gifts include National Rugby League gold passes for himself and Ms Babbage and memberships to the Virgin Australia and Qantas Chairman lounges.
