Treasurer Joe Hockey and financial guru Melissa Babbage have a very modern political marriage
Samantha Maiden Herald Sun May 19, 2013 12:01AM
Joe Hockey Melissa Babbage
SUNRISE host David Koch still remembers the day Joe Hockey rang to tell him his investment banker wife Melissa Babbage was selling "everything we own''.
It was a year before the global financial crisis hit and the stock market was riding high.
"Joe rang, and he said: "Melissa, she is selling everything,'' says Koch.
"He said, "I've convinced her to keep the house, but she reckons we're heading for the biggest global economic event since the Great Depression.''
She was right.
Koch, who wrote a column based on the tip that he was rubbished for at the time, describes Babbage as "an absolute guru''.
''She saw it coming,'' Joe Hockey tells Agenda. ''It’s true.''
So when the finance expert wants wise counsel he sometimes rings Australia's alternative Treasurer just to check: "What does Melissa reckon?''
20/10/2009. Federal MP Joe Hockey and his daughter Adelaide, 2, wife Melissa Babbage and son Xavier, 4, with new baby Ignatius who was born yesterday (Mon) at The Mater Hospital. Picture: Tracee Lea Source: News Limited
Babbage, a 47-year-old mum of three kids and self-made millionaire is famed for leaving lesser mortals terrified in her wake.
Female financial gurus however already run in the family.
Hockey likes to brag his grandmother was something of a 1920s share trading shark who was so sharp that family folklore suggests her bank sent out messengers to her house every two weeks to pick up her dividend cheques for deposit.
For most political families, a high profile spouse means someone has to take a back seat.
But the Hockey-Babbage partnership is a very modern political marriage. For many years, Babbage juggled three children and a big job as the head of the global finance division of Deutsche Bank.
It wasn't always easy, despite all the trappings that investment bankers’ money can buy: the Hunters Hill house in Sydney, the Queensland cattle station, Melissa's Porsche Boxster that previously appeared on Joe Hockey’s parliamentary register of interests, the nannies and the $2,000 Thermomix machine that sits in Hockey's parliamentary office that chops, dices, steams and promises to make asparagus risotto in eighteen minutes.
Hockey still remembers the faint green glow of Melissa's computer screen in their bedroom for years with news on international markets. Babbage still remembers her failed experiment with formal childcare as a high-flying executive.
"No, I tried to use formal childcare but Xavier, he was downstairs in the childcare centre screaming and I was upstairs in the loo bawling. So I've always had a nanny,'' she says.
The couple know it's a choice most families don't have the luxury of choosing. But during a period in their lives when both parents could be missing from home it was the only solution.
"For Melissa, who was at various times flying to London and having a two hour meeting and flying back, or when you had to go to Singapore for three days, it was a nanny in the house because we had children so late it was impossible for my parents to be there,'' Hockey says.
"Melissa's mum has been a great help but she couldn't do it all the time.
"That's one of the thing having children at a later age, the grandparents have a limited capacity to help.''
Juggling the pressures of the job will only get tougher if Hockey emerges as expected as Australia's next Treasurer.
Hockey rejects any suggestion he is dragging Tony Abbott kicking and screaming to make tough savings.
Question Time in the House of Representatives. Joe Hockey, Shadow Treasurer with Opposition Leader Tony Abbot during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament house in Canberra. Picture: Ramage Gary Source: News Limited
"No. It's a close and honest relationship based on mutual respect,'' Hockey says.
"He is someone I have known for a very long time. Of course we don't always agree on everything but we are fingers on the same hand.''
Unlike John Howard, who famously failed to invite his Treasurer Peter Costello to the Lodge for dinner for years, the pair are close.
Hockey also speaks regularly to Howard and Costello but describes these soundings as "private conversations'' beyond his advice on family life.
"John Howard said when I first came down here, he said `No matter what you do speak to your family twice a day,' Hockey says.
But unlike Paul Keating who moved his young family to Canberra as Treasurer to cut the commute, Hockey says he will stay in Sydney.
"I couldn't do that. The children are in a wonderful community and everyone cares for each other. And I made a promise to Melissa that I wouldn't ask her during my lifetime to live in my shadow and she wouldn't ask me,'' she says.
After signing off on the likely axing of the baby bonus, a signature measure of the Howard years, Hockey warns further challenges lie ahead.
"It's obvious that a number of these measures have to go and the baby bonus is one of them,'' he says.
Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott and shadow treasurer Joe Hockey hold a press conference in Sydney in response to the Government announcing it plans to scrap part of it's carbon tax compensation scheme. Pic: Dan Himbrechts Picture: Himbrechts Dan Source: News Limited
Just four years ago Hockey was favoured to lead the Liberal Party when Malcolm Turnbull's leadership collapsed.
It was Turnbull's last minute decision to stand in the ballot that denied Hockey his chance, delivering a three cornered contest that threw up the surprise leadership of Tony Abbott by a single vote.
"I was a bit grumpy generally. It was a pretty awful time in Opposition. We had been through a very dark, cold valley. We're not at the top of the mountain I can assure you. The top of the mountain is when we get the economy back on track,’’ he says.
Earlier that year, when Hockey climbed Mt Kilimanjaro with Kochie, the big man's softer side was on display as he buried an ultrasound picture of his youngest son, Iggy, who was yet to be born.
The couple had been told their chances of having a third child were slim, they were "too old''.
They had waited eleven years, more than half of their twenty year marriage to have kids. Babbage was nearly 40 when she decided to have kids, a decision Hockey still recalls as one of the best days of his life.
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey holding a doorstop at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith Source: News Limited
"One day she just told me. One day she said, "Don't count on children. And one of the great days of my life was when she said, "Let's have children,'' Hockey says.
"I knew if I pushed, she wouldn't.''
But when doctors told her a third child was out of the question she wouldn't be told. Hockey recalls his wife telling him not to listen to them.
"You were blunter than that,'' interjects Hockey and her saying of that advice: "No one tells me what I can and can't do''
"I said, "Don't listen to them. "You were a bit blunter than that, Hockey adds. "She says, "No one tells me what I can and can't do.”
Koch remembers Hockey wandering off at the top of Mt Kilimanjaro to bury Iggy’s ultrasound.
"He carried the ultrasound in his backpack. When we did the Kokoda Track, he carried a picture of his two kids in his hat. He's always been a big softie,’’ he says.
Two years ago, Melissa left Deutsche Bank after a twenty year career to join a number of boards as a non-executive director. She's still busy, but also has the time to ride her bike with the kids to school.
"I take my kids to school. I pick them up lots of days, not every day. I can go and do reading groups. Those things are really important to me,'' she says.
It's a shift that has got her thinking about how workplaces could do more to hold on to women.
"For me, there was kind of a lot of things came together at the same time. Probably more than anything was I had done twenty years in investment banking, in the dealing room, in global markets with a global bank.
"It's a pretty intense kind of environment. And yes, I had these three really small children and I thought, "You know what ? Now is actually a good time for me to make a change.''
"I had been thinking about the board route for a couple of years.
"I think that the nature of senior exec work seems to be that you need to be available 24-7. I think there probably are some firms that are open to working in other ways but I think it's a really small percentage.
"I don't think enough firms are creative enough in the way they look to structure roles. There's still too much that's about office face time and not necessarily about objectives and then output.''
Joe Hockey Federal Liberal Works Relations Minister for the Seat of North Sydney with his wife Melissa and children Adelaide 11months and Xavier 2yrs at the Lane Cove Public School. Picture: Frank Violi Source: Herald Sun
Babbage laughs though about the reaction of her children these days when she dresses in a suit.
"I come downstairs dressed in my suit as opposed to my joggers, it's like, "Where are you going today!''
"I find that really fascinating. (Joe's) allowed to come and go and do whatever he wants, but I'm not. They know what Daddy is doing in Canberra. They understand that.''
Hockey believes in the productivity benefits of more women in the workforce in senior roles.
"Having more women in the workforce increases participation. It's good for corporate balance sheets because the more diverse your workforce, the better the output,'' he says.
"I think it also changes culture in organisations."
Both he and his wife have an open mind on quotas to increase the number of women on boards which is currently languishing at around 12 per cent.
"I think there's a group of senior men that are really trying to show strong leadership in this area who are really supportive of women. Having said that though for me the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result,'' she says.
"There's nothing deliberate about it. It's about culture and it's about having an open mind sometimes.''
Hockey also backs tax deductibility for childcare, a measure that is not Liberal Party policy. Critics argue it would deliver few benefits other than for high income earners.
"I argued early on for tax deductibility for childcare and I was slapped down. I've always seen childcare support as a productivity issue,'' Hockey says.
Babbage, a former athlete, is also thrilled by Hockey’s recent transformation after losing 30 kilos through gastric sleeve surgery. He’s skinnier than when they first started dating 22 years ago.
"What do I like about it ? I don't know, everything ? I like the exercise. I like the new clothes. I like the food,’’ she laughs.
"It was his decision. He had thought about it for a lot longer than he had discussed it with me. When Joe is determined about it he is very determined.”
