The Australian-English phrase hip-pocket nerve designates an imaginary nerve that reacts whenever demands are made on one’s money—especially in the context of government proposals to increase taxes.

This phrase occurs, for example, in The wages of spin, by Mike Seccombe, published in The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Monday 5^th November 2001:

The time-honoured way of seducing swinging voters is the appeal to self interest, the hip-pocket nerve.

The phrase hip-pocket nerve refers to the noun hip-pocket as denoting a trouser pocket that is traditionally the repository of a person’s wallet or cash.

This phrase seems to have been first used—if not coined—by the Labor politician Joseph Benedict ‘Ben’ Chifley (1885-1951), Prime Minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase hip-pocket nerve that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From Political Ins and Outs, by Oliver Hogue, published in the Supplement to The Sunday Sun (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Sunday 2^nd June 1946:

About the Commonwealth’s Constitutional power to gain the control, Chifley says: “The Commonwealth has the power of the purse. The hip-pocket nerve is a very sensitive nerve in the human frame.”

2-: From the transcript of a speech delivered by Ben Chifley in the House of Representatives during the debate on the second reading of the Income Tax Assessment Bill—transcript published in The Australian Worker (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Wednesday 21^st May 1947:

The honorable member for Fawkner indicated that in the aggregate taxation was greater than ever it was before. He overlooked the fact that the average citizen is not concerned with aggregate taxation.
The average citizen is not interested in what the whole of the community pays; his sole interest is in what he pays.
Accordingly, I shall bring the honorable member for Fawkner right down to earth.
As members of Parliament receive an allowance of £1000 a year, I propose to examine the case of a man in receipt of that income, because it will bring home the facts to a very sensitive nerve in the human constitution—the “hip-pocket nerve.”

3-: From Political Ins and Outs, by Oliver Hogue, published in the Supplement to The Sunday Sun (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Sunday 8^th June 1947:

All the fire and eloquence, the exhortations and self justification in the speeches on the £500 Salary Rise Bill this week, pointed to the truth of the original Chifley epigram: “The hip pocket nerve is the most sensitive in the human frame.”

4-: From Premier “Grasps The Nettles”, by a special correspondent, published in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia) of Monday 7^th July 1947—James McGirr (1890-1957) was the Labor Premier of New South Wales from February 1947 to April 1952:

Healthy reductions in taxation have caused Mr. Chifley’s stocks to soar. The Prime Minister will have a passing thought for Mr. McGirr, for nobody knows better than he the sensitivity of the “hip pocket nerve.” And that is the nerve Mr. McGirr has to touch to retrieve the State’s finances.

5-: From a letter to the Editor, by one Kathleen Veness, published in the Daily Telegraph and Daily News (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Tuesday 30^th September 1947:

The Prime Minister was credited with a little epigram, “The hip-pocket nerve is the most sensitive in the human anatomy,” and the “hip pocket” will always be the deciding consideration when the issues are clear; but when a question presents itself that must be decided on more abstract merits the majority simply have no opinion because our present school system does not encourage children to think as individuals.