Doorstop, Federal Press Gallery

14 August 2024

JOURNALIST: I want to ask first about Bluesfest. This is one of a number of big festivals that are closing down. The music industry is in something of a crisis at the moment. There are job implications for this rising cost is one aspect you're concerned about. The number of festivals that are going bust. Is this a concern? Does the government need to look at doing some more here?

JANE HUME: I think this should be a concern for all Australians. When these cultural iconic events start shutting down because of rising costs, that's when you know that inflation doesn't just have that primary effect. It's not just that ‘I can't pay my bills’. It's not just that ‘my mortgage has gone up’. It's those secondary and tertiary effects that can fundamentally change the fabric of our society. Of course, when wages are rising, when energy bills are going up, when we're wrapped up in red tape, when industrial relations is strangling our employers, you will see things like the Bluefest fall away. We're seeing it in small businesses in particular. In my home state of Victoria, one in 11 hospitality jobs or hospitality businesses are expected to shut by the end of this year. Now that's really sad news for those entrepreneurs that have got out there and had a go, started a business and employed other people, but it's also shame for the rest of us that won't have a chance to experience their restaurants, to go out and have an evening out, or go and buy their cup of coffee during the day, because those businesses have failed. Moreover, those businesses aren't selling up and moving on. They're simply shutting the doors because they can't keep them open, they can't turn the lights on, they can't pay their employees. That's a sad state of affairs, which is why we are saying that the most important focus for the government right now should be getting inflation under control. Inflation is the thief in the night that eats away at your savings and erodes your purchasing power. It reduces your standard of living. It reduces your quality of life. That's why we need to get inflation under control. That's why we want the government to focus on its job, using its fiscal firepower to do it, rather than just turning it over to the RBA to do all the heavy lifting. And the RBA have said they need more help from the Government.

JOURNALIST: In terms of the made in Australia legislation, how, what is the Coalition looking to amend? Or why are you looking?

JANE HUME: The Future Made in Australia legislation is full of waffle words and weasel words, and yet, there have been decisions that have been made. For instance, the Psi Quantum computing decision, which was to give half a billion dollars to an American company, it’s hard to see that being a future made in Australia. Or indeed the Solar SunShot, a billion dollars to Solar SunShot to create solar panels in which Australia will never be competitive. These decisions were made without the Future Made in Australia framework. Quite frankly, this seems to be legislation that will provide a slush fund at the discretion of the minister in the lead up to an election. That there's no demonstration that it's actually going to employ anyone other than some of that 36,000 additional public servants that the government put on in the last two years, 50 public servants every single day have been put on by this government. They need something to do. Sounds like that's the Future Made in Australia legislation.

JOURNALIST: And so what will you look to do? I mean, is there anyone, have you got the cross bench on the side? And how are you going to try and block?

JANE HUME: Well, we'll put this to our normal party processes, but quite frankly, I think that even the cross bench will be looking at it very carefully and wondering why on earth is necessary, if you can make decisions without it, why do you need to legislate a framework that isn't going to provide one single extra job. Potentially isn't going to build industries in which we aren’t already competitive. This just seems to be a Labor boondoggle to create a slush fund.

JOURNALIST: Senator, wouldn’t it be better to have some guardrails around Future Made in Australia funding? I mean, if there is no Future Made in Australia Bill, at least, you know there is some transparency that comes from having that legislation in place surely?

JANE HUME: Future Made in Australia is a great slogan, but the best thing you can do to create industry in Australia is to get inflation down. It's to get energy costs down by putting more supply into the system. It's to free businesses up by having a flexible industrial relations system that works for employers and employees. It's about reducing red tape, and particularly those approval times in our resources sector. Now, it takes 16 years to get a mine up and running, and most importantly, it's about putting in an incentive based tax system whereby we have lower, simpler and fair taxes that embed and enshrine aspiration back into our economy. We're currently in a per capita recession. If it wasn't for those incredibly high immigration rates that we've had in the last two years, this country would be going backwards on every measure. We are failing economically, and that's because of the priorities and choices of this Labor Government. The Future Made in Australia is a smoke screen. It actually would deliver so little when the opportunity is there to do so much just

JOURNALIST: Just on refugees coming from Palestine, I know there's a, or from Gaza in particular. I know there's a zero tolerance approach the Coalition wants for support for Hamas. Do you have an idea practically of what that threshold will be for support? Is it liking a Facebook post? Is it having a brother that's given a speech at some point? Do you have a practical sense of what would meet that threshold?

JANE HUME: Well, this is entirely the government's responsibility. We want to make sure that we look after those that are coming from war zones, certainly, but there has to be appropriate vetting. The approval times for some of the people that were coming from war torn Gaza was so low, there is no way that the appropriate version could have been done. We want to make sure that when we bring people to our country, that they share our values and that they share our hopes and dreams, not only that, that they're not associated with organisations that all shades of government have declared a terrorist organization that should be fundamentally important to keeping Australians safe.

JOURNALIST: So, if someone's liked a Facebook post, for example, for Hamas. Would that mean no visa?

JANE HUME: That's not a decision for the Opposition to make. That's a decision for our security agencies to make, and for our government to take very seriously.