Treasurer Joe Hockey has dismissed warnings from his former colleague Peter Costello that Australia's economic luck is "beginning to run out".

The country's longest serving treasurer argues the economy is undergoing a major restructure and is fearful that China's appetite for resources is tapering off.

"We went on with rising living standards right through 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 after an initial readjustment and Australia boomed in a way we've never seen before," Mr Costello told a property council event in Sydney.

"But the luck's beginning to run out."

Mr Costello said the economy was undergoing big changes, and he believed consumers were being left with a sense of uncertainty about the future.

But Mr Hockey told ABC TV's 7.30 program he remained "fundamentally an optimist".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-17/costello-says-australias-economic-luck-is-running-out/5751286

Joe's optimism relies on you working harder for less...

Treasurer Joe Hockey has signalled more budget cuts are on the way to pay for new defence and security spending.

In August, the Government announced a $630 million funding boost for security and intelligence agencies to better deal with the threat of terrorism.

Mr Hockey said he was looking for ways to cover that new spending.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-01/joe-hockey-signals-more-budget-cuts-to-pay-for-defence-security/5782044

Idiot.

Low-income families in Western Sydney and Melbourne's northern suburbs will suffer the most under new Federal Government budget measures, a study has found.

Low-to-middle income families could be worse off by more than $3,500 a year, the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) study found, while low income families with children could lose more than 6.5 per cent of their disposable income.

A couple with children in the lowest income quintile will, on average, lose 6.6 per cent of their disposable income by 2017-2018 while a top quintile family will actually gain 0.3 per cent.

The study modelled 19 separate budget measures and also included some additional elements outside the Coalition's 2014-2015 budget.

These measures differentiate the trajectory of the previous Labor government and that of the Abbott Government's first budget.

Treasurer Joe Hockey is facing an estimated $51 billion deterioration in Commonwealth finances between the budget and MYEFO, economists say.

Mr Hockey is due to hand down the Government's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) before Christmas, but the combination of a Senate hostile to key savings measures and slumping commodity prices looks set to make his festive season anything but.

The latest report from independent consultancy Macroeconomics finds savings worth $11 billion annually in four years' time are currently tied up in the Senate and unlikely to pass.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/treasurer-facing-51-billion-budget-black-hole/5880718

'I didn't hear Obama's speech' 9:00am Live

It is one of the most significant moments of the G20 so far, but Joe Hockey wasn't listening.