Amateur hour in the Treasurer's office

Is it just me or are we all a little disappointed in the Coalition at the moment.
Frankly, I'm shocked by the rubbish coming out of the Treasurer's office at the moment

1. The debt ceiling.Requesting a $500 million increase when $400 million would have been enough. Especially after badgering the government over their debt, to turn around and request an increase is a pretty bad look.

2. Secondly, the idea that the commonwealth should invest 10% in a losing industry like Airlines (through Qantas) is a very outdated idea that has no place in a modern government's policy. The industry is competitive enough and there are better things to spend $500 million on.

2. The rejection of the Graincorp deal. This is very much politics over the national interest. It is mentioned in Hockey's statement

"A further significant consideration was that this proposal has attracted a high level of concern from stakeholders and the broader community. I therefore judged that allowing it to proceed could risk undermining public support for the foreign investment regime and ongoing foreign investment more generally. "

If that isn't code for "We don't want to lose the Farmers support", I don't know what is!

As for the premise that 85% of exports from East Coast Farmers go through GrainCorp's logistical network, I say, big woop. There is the "WEST" coast Farmers as well, and the West Coast actually is the biggest exporter of their grains, not the East Coast, of which 66% of the harvest actually flows into domestic supply.

So just a red herring. It's a pretty sad result all up as the Grains industry would have got a $200 million capital injection from ADM straight away, which is badly needed for those East Coast markets that lag behind the more efficient West Coast industry.

Sad day when politics get in the way of foreign investment. A rookie mistake by Hockey.