Macquarie hires Joe Hockey as new US frontman

Australian Financial Review | May 15, 2020

Macquarie Group’s New York-based dealmaking machine has hired Joe Hockey to hunt down US infrastructure opportunities with a heavy focus on technology and renewable energy.

The former federal treasurer has been working for the investment behemoth since early April after leaving the Australian ambassador’s official Washington residence White Oaks in late January.

“Macquarie is a world leader in infrastructure and renewable energy and America is where a hell of a lot of action is going to take place over the next few years,” Mr Hockey told The Australian Financial Review.

“It’s the opportunity to be in the engine room of innovation.”

The move is an eye-opener for several reasons. It launches Mr Hockey’s shift into the private sector after almost a quarter of a century in public life, establishes him with a strong foothold in America’s troubled COVID-19-afflicted economy, and sees him tasked with developing a sector he has famously slammed in the past.

Speaking on Macquarie Radio just days before delivering his first budget as treasurer in early May 2014, he lambasted public subsidies paid to wind farms.

“If I can be a little indulgent please, I drive to Canberra to go to Parliament, I drive myself and I must say I find those wind turbines around Lake George to be utterly offensive … they’re just a blight on the landscape,” he said at the time.

Asked about his remarks, Mr Hockey insisted he has never been opposed to sensible renewable energy.

Published by the AFR.