The lights haven’t been kind to Federal Financial Services and Regulation Minister Joe Hockey over the past week as he did the rounds of the TV interviewers to sell the Government’s rescue package and experience a ritual grilling.

The Minister was also pummeled by ALP-governed states which have laid the blame for the HIH collapse squarely at the door of APRA and the Minister. Mr Hockey’s landing of the Government aid package to be administered by the insurance industry received very little praise from the states.

Most fire has been directed from the eastern states. Perhaps the most heated comments have come from NSW Premier Bob Carr, who knows better. Even the normally reticent ICA was prompted to describe Mr Carr’s suggestion of a conspiracy between the insurance industry and the Federal Government as “bizarre”.

While they are reluctant to have their names on record, several leading members of the insurance industry have expressed concern at the states’ attitudes to the rescue of HIH claimants. “It’s all turning into a political football,” one leading underwriter said.

Ray Williams, the founder and former CEO of HIH, also found himself at the centre of a flurry of media attacks over the past week. When Mr Williams finally broke cover in Melbourne late last week, he said he had nothing to hide and would voluntarily hand in his passport. And he also called for the HIH investigations not to turn into a “legal frenzy. I only ask that the inquiry be thorough and the results of the inquiry transparent. I will assist and co-operate in that process.”