When Peter Costello urged Joe Hockey to abandon the government's $7 GP fee, he had some advice for the Treasurer.
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“There's no point in saying 'We're right and you're wrong',” Mr Costello warned. “Cut your losses and move on.”
What the former treasurer didn't reveal was his own attempt to argue against hope with the crossbench for a new medical impost – and his own unwillingness to walk away from his plan.
In 2002, Mr Costello and former Prime Minister John Howard unveiled a tough budget, warning that the rising cost of aged pensioners and the sick threatened Australia's economic prosperity.
A centrepiece of the budget was a plan to raise the cost of medicines through a higher charge on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to save $1.1 billion.
In a line that could have been delivered by Mr Hockey in 2014, Mr Costello argued that the country needed the “courage to make small adjustments” or risk bigger structural changes in the future.
Pensioners and the disabled said they were being unfairly targeted by the Coalition.
Just as in 2014, crossbenchers who held the balance of power stood against the plan.
Most critical was Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja who was invited to attend a briefing with Mr Costello.
Richard Denniss, her then chief of staff, told Fairfax Media that Mr Costello was insistent that the charge would be legislated.
“The briefing went on for 40 minutes with all sorts of graphs on a flipchart. There were red lines going up and Costello was asking 'Are you scared yet?” Mr Denniss said.
“He said 'Look at the numbers we have to introduce these reforms.' As we were leaving Natasha responded, saying I have looked at the numbers and you don't have them in the Senate.”
Ms Stott Despoja wrote about the incident in 2009, giving the same version of events as Mr Denniss this week.
Mr Denniss said Mr Hockey would be wise to appreciate the lessons of history – standing in the way of some government plans is “what Senates do”.
“If [Hockey] is flying all over the country showing crossbenchers his power point presentation, history would suggest that's not going to work on its own. Evidence matters but persuading the right people to support you is a big part too.”
