But when the Australian Treasurer said he wanted the pension age bumped up to 70 years by 2035, he based it on solid analysis.
That analysis persuaded Hockey that breaking one of the Liberal Party's pre-election promises was the right thing to do.
We've got plenty of similar analysis on this side of the Tasman.
Finance Minister Bill English knows this - it's his Treasury that pumps out the numbers and the policy prescriptions.
Hence his rather sheepish response when challenged at the luncheon he and Hockey fronted in Wellington on National's intransigence.
"I've got nothing new to say about the pension age," he said.
"We made a commitment. It's now become a matter of trust, as much as policy. The Prime Minister said he would resign if the age changes. If the age changes and he doesn't resign, no one would trust him ever again, even if they support the policy."
This is fatuous, and the Finance Minister knows it.
English gave the game away when he said that while National wasn't changing the retirement age, "a future government may well do that".
It is quite extraordinary that a Government that has won a strong reputation for fiscal prudence and good governance insists on placing its head in the sand.
As John Maynard Keynes said in that rather bastardised quote, "When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?"
If anyone could make the case for why - with new data - the age should be raised, Key could.
He could take it to an election and claim a mandate if successful.
This is an issue, as Key has shown all the signs of wanting to repeat the golden age of Keith Holyoake, who enjoyed four terms in government by not rocking the boat too much.
It's a different world now.
A huge wave of structural reform is happening in Australia.
Hockey's confident picture of a stronger and prosperous Australia - poised to be the world's largest exporter of energy within a decade, still quarrying massive loads of iron ore and sharing our destiny of being an Asian "food basket" - is good for New Zealand.
Hockey's "future Australia" will have an enormous demand for immigrants to staff all those gas wells, coal and uranium mines, quarries and farms - not to mention all the professional jobs that go with a prosperous economy.
"We're blessed to be in the fastest growing time zone in the history of humanity," the Australian Treasurer chirped as he exhorted an audience to take note of the "insatiable demand that was going to continue".
Sure we've cried a river about all the Kiwis who've crossed the Ditch for high-paying Australian jobs - but we'd have cried even more if they had stayed here and added to the jobless numbers when our economy was under pressure.
Plenty are now coming back or staying home as Australia stays in its deep funk while the Abbott Government puts the economy through long-overdue reform.
Here's another thing.
The Hockey vision suggests that once the Australian Government has its fiscal deficit under control, it should have no difficulty treating the many Kiwi "lifters" who have been helping build that prosperous future with a bit more humanity if they fall on hard times and have to become a "leaner" for a short while.
It's understandable that Hockey - in the Treasurer's role for less than a year - doesn't want to open up the Australian welfare system to New Zealand workers yet.
Some of those workers who have already paid plenty of tax into federal coffers are now stamping their feet via the Expat Party reminding politicians that they didn't go to Australia to be bludgers and should be treated more highly than guest workers.
Our politicians prefer to preserve Australia's status as an economic safety valve for New Zealand, rather than to make sure our citizens are treated more fairly by our neighbour.
It's time we did both.
