Common sense is all you need to run the government, radio shock jock Alan Jones said, hectoring Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

After about an hour and a half of near constant talking, Jones began to berate the PM about the government’s procedural requirements.

“The Prime Minister has got reports, white papers, green papers, pink papers, yellow papers coming out of his ears,” Jones said.

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“If I was working for the PM I’d say you only need one report and it would be a short one: a report on common sense.”

Jones then took aim at Treasurer Joe Hockey’s desire to “have a conversation” about tax reform.

Jones said “I hate this word ‘conversation’” preferring to use its formal name – a discussion paper.

The Re:think tax discussion paper, to which Jones was referring, is a formal process leading to an options paper, or green paper. That process ends up producing a white paper.

Jones also argued the government’s review on competition policy released this week was off the mark.

“Good man Ian Harper, but on this one he’s miles off the pace.”

When finally introduced to the discussion, Mr Abbott flagged drought relief was being discussed in the party room.

Later in the show Jones praised the government’s brains trust.

“You’ve got a retinue of people in your government who are smart, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“Why couldn’t you go to the electorate and say … let’s talk about it.”

He called on the PM to raise the GST and get rid of tax exemptions to raise 80 billion rather than taxing companies harder.

“Isn’t that worth discussing and sharing and debating, now, urgently, when you’re talking about tax?”

Mr Abbott responded that spending had to be brought under control first, and that change to the GST couldn’t be done without support from all states and territories and the opposition.