Doorstop, Press Gallery

9 October 2024

JOURNALIST: So Jane, with the NBN laws that the government's proposing today, is that something that, if you were elected, you'd want to privatise the NBN? Like was that something generally on the table?

JANE HUME: The Coalition have made no noises about privatising the NBN. This is a solution looking for a problem and clearly it's a political stunt. The fact that you bring it on first thing in the morning with no notice before the Shadow Ministers have even been briefed on the legislation, before it's gone to party rooms, and then the Prime Minister jumps on a plane and jets off to Laos. It's kind of clearly a political stunt. It’s a solution looking for a problem. I don’t know why on Earth they would do this.

JOURNALIST: If elected, would you look at privatising things like Australia Post, the Inland Rail? Those two specifically?

JANE HUME: No. Those things have not been part of Coalition policies. They've never been something that we've spoken about. The most important thing is that we provide essential services that Australians expect and deserve. But there also has to be a level of economic credibility here. The Labor Party used to be a party that would build things that they would then sell on. You look at the Hawke Keating Government. They sold things like Qantas, they sold the Commonwealth Bank. They actually built this into the NBN legislation. It was Stephen Conroy that put in all the safeguards that would prevent the NBN being sold off on a whim, and now the Government wants to repeal this. I simply do not understand what it is that they're doing, other than having a political stunt.

JOURNALIST: But the NBN is running at a loss. Could you see some value in selling it off though, in the future?

JANE HUME: You’d have to have a buyer before you would even consider selling something at a loss. There isn't a buyer out there, and there's no intention to sell it. The Coalition has no intention to sell and it hasn't had intention to sell the NBN. This is simply a panicked government jumping at shadows.

JOURNALIST: What about nuclear power as well? Is that something that Peter Dutton's position is to keep it as a public asset? But, I mean, if it's the kind of thing that would be more efficient to sell it off, would you look at potentially selling a part of that?

JANE HUME: Well, I think that there's a long way to go in the conversation about establishing a nuclear, civil nuclear energy industry in Australia, before we get to that, and our costings around nuclear well in advance of the election as well.

JOURNALIST: Would you like to see things go the other way and see things taken back as a public asset, like Qantas or the supermarkets, for example?

JANE HUME: Well, we do remember that the government, the Labor opposition, then an opposition, wanted to privatise Virgin Airlines just a few years ago, that clearly would have been a very expensive mistake. Virgin Airlines are now turning a profit, and they're doing that as part of the private sector. So I think that maybe Labor's economic credibility has already been shot into tatters.

JOURNALIST: Jane, in your role chairing the Cost of Living Committee, what did you find when it came to insurance companies and the role that premiums had in driving the cost of living?

JANE HUME: Yeah, insurance premiums are going up, and we're hearing that specifically from small businesses. Small businesses that are now paying the price for that rapidly increasing inflation. Insurance companies have told us, not at the Cost of Living Committee, but insurance companies, have told us that because building costs have gone up so much in Australia, that's pushing up insurance premiums exponentially, and you can understand why they need to increase the premiums to cover those building costs. When those claims are called if you've got inflation down, if you've got building costs under control, premiums wouldn't have to go up quite so much.

JOURNALIST: What does that mean for consumers then, if businesses are paying more for insurance?

JANE HUME: Well, the most important thing that a government can do is get inflation under control, because inflation is that thief in the night, that erodes purchasing power, that pushes prices up, that eats away at your savings, and that reduces your standard of living. Unfortunately, the government has failed to get inflation down over two years. It's had three Budgets to do so, and it's failed to do on every measure and in fact, it's been the Reserve Bank that's had to do all the heavy lifting here, because the government hasn't used its fiscal firepower to do so.

JOURNALIST: The Coalition's been on a divestiture spree of late, discussions of supermarkets, airlines, would insurance companies not be one of those you'd look at?

JANE HUME: Well, insurance companies aren't operating in an uncompetitive market. There's plenty of options out there. I wouldn't actually call it a divestiture spree, Charles, I think that's a stretch. We do know that the supermarkets have been acting as a cartel and that anti-competitive behavior does need to be reined in. That's why we've put forward a complete competition policy that includes a commissioner that sits within the ACCC to make sure that there are complaints that are dealt with by effectively, particularly for those suppliers to supermarkets, and that there are powers there that the ACCC can call on, the court can order, if necessary, if there has been a specific breach of competition.

JOURNALIST: Are you worried, as some welfare groups are, that Australians are now under insured, or simply not insured at all and these are the people that most need insurance because they have least?

JANE HUME: Yeah, there is certainly a concern that when Australians are suffering from the Cost of Living Crisis, that something has got to give. Banks are telling us the last thing that seems to go is their mortgage repayments. But what else is it that they have to give up? Is it their health insurance? Is it their life insurance? Is it their home insurance? That's a real concern. We want to make sure that more Australians feel that they are better off, not worse off, as they have been under this government in the last two years, so that they know that they can afford to mitigate those risks, whether it be health, whether it be life, whether it be their personalisation.

JOURNALIST: Is there anything that should be privatised? If it means trimming the fat, if it means making government run a bit better?

JANE HUME: Not a Coalition policy, to privatise any specific asset. But that said, government should do government business and the private sector should stick to private sector business and that’s responsible economic management.