Doorstop, Press Gallery

19 November 2024

JOURNALIST: Why are you going to be opposing student caps?

JANE HUME: We think that the Bill that's before the Parliament isn't going to solve the problem. The publisher said that we are in favor of having a number of international students, but not in this piecemeal approach. This is a problem of the Government's own making. They have allowed the migration system to run out of control. We now have more than a million students here, either current or former students, and that's almost double the number of students that we had in May of 2022 there's so many different categories of visa we've got a huge number of people now that have applied for asylum or that are partners or family members, secondary student holders visa holders. By just capping the number of students, we're not actually addressing this immensely complex system that lies underneath it.

JOURNALIST: But Peter Dutton had committed to a cap, so that's still the Coalition's position isn’t it?

JANE HUME: Yeah, and he also committed to a cap by talking to providers of the universities. The feedback that we've had is that the private providers and the regional universities have had very limited consultations as part of this process, and that's a real problem. We can't just deal with the big universities. We have to be able to make sure that our international student regime is an effective and a workable one, but also a fair one, and hasn’t been (inaudible).

JOURNALIST: So is the position to still have a cap that have a lower figure than 270?

JANE HUME: We won't deal with this legislation in a piecemeal way. We want to make sure that we deal with our migration problem in a holistic way, and that's what you're seeing…

JOURNALIST: So you’re not completely committed to caps. Just to clarify, that that's not a sure, the Coalition position, you're not committing to a student gap.

JANE HUME: No, we have said that we will limit the number of international students, but we will do so in consultation with the universities, not just the big universities, but also the regional universities and the private providers. International students are a very important part of our migration program, but the system has been allowed to run out of control. It's having an effect on our economy. It's having an effect on our housing system as well, and fueling, part of fueling the housing crisis in Australia.

JOURNALIST: Senator, Aged Care reforms are going to land in the Senate today we expect. Have all the kinks been ironed out to get that through fairly quickly?

JANE HUME: That’s probably a question that's better asked of the Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Health and Aged Care, Anne Ruston. But what I will say is that the Coalition has said from the very beginning that when we work with the Government to make sensible reforms in aged care, and you can see that demonstrated. We did that around the financial framework for aged care, we had to do that, because without that, the government wasn't going to introduce this legislation. But it's a very big, broad, ranting piece of legislation. We do want to see reforms, but we'll wait to see the final.

JOURNALIST: Just quickly on the gender pay gap from today, women are essentially working free if you pay attention to the broad stats around the gender pay gap. Do you think that more needs to be done when it comes to closing that gap?

JANE HUME: Well, of course, we want to see a tighter gender pay gap. In fact, in government, the Coalition saw a reduction in the gender pay gap from around 17.2% when Labor left office down to around 13 and a half percent, which was really encouraging. Now, moving that gap even tighter is a difficult thing to do. The most important thing we can do, though, is make sure that there are fulfilling the fulfilling jobs, that there's thriving economy, that there are opportunities, both for education and employment, for not just women, but all Australians and that's what a Coalition government will cause.

JOURNALIST: You’ve described the crisis on the cost of doing business. Is the Coalition going to commit to lifting the definition of small business to 25 employees?

JANE HUME: Yeah, you can see why small businesses would like to see an alignment definition of small businesses between the tax system and the industrial relations system. But what they're really crying out for here is a reduction in red tape. About 49% of small businesses either just breaking even or not turning a profit right now. And small business owners have been telling me, in my role as Chair of the Cost of Living Committee, that they're spending additional hours working on these like payroll, working on things like compliance in their spare time in inverted commerce, or working extra hours in business just because of the red tape that has been imposed upon them by this Government. That's entirely unfair, and the industrial relations changes, their reforms have been part of that problem. Small businesses don't have in-house legal counsel, they don't have a compliance department, they don't have human resources. And yet, the same problems that the same impositions are being placed on small businesses as they are on large businesses, and that's unchanged. It's one of the reasons why our productivity in this country is going backwards, because we've wrapped up our small businesses and indeed our large businesses with an enormous amount of regulation.

JOURNALIST: Is there a risk that you can see the pay and entitlements of some employees scaled back under changes, you know, to try and ease the cost of doing business, in attempt to try and prove the cost of living, I suppose. Is that, could you be running counter arguments there?

JANE HUME: Well, there's no intention for anybody to see reduction in their entitlements, but industrial relations system that works in favor of both the employee and the employer, because employees are one part of the economy, but employers are the other, and each is as vital as each other. It has to be a fair system for both.

JOURNALIST: Senator, some of your Nationals colleagues have raised concerns about the Electoral Reform Bill, saying that if there are more limits or restrictions on how they can fundraise in their local seats, that it might see more centralisation of funds for election campaigns through head offices and so forth. I know your answer will probably be, we're still going through all negotiations and so forth. But where have you landed on this electoral reform issue, and do you share those concerns about sort of centralisation of funding?

JANE HUME: Yeah, look, you're absolutely right, I am going to say that we're going to take this development planning processes. In fact, the party rooms, both party rooms made today and electoral reforms will end up moving on the table. I can sense that the Government would like to pass these extremely quickly, but we want to make sure that we- it's very complicated. There's lots of different parts of moving past this. We want to make sure that we unpick the implications, not just for the Coalition partyroom but between for individual parties as well.

JOURNALIST: Just finally, for absolute clarity, the Coalition is still committed to imposing a cap on student numbers. Is that right?

JANE HUME: The Coalition is committed to working with our universities to limit the number of international students in the way that works for them, and we'll do that by consulting with the universities, with regional and rural universities, and with the private sector providers, because international students are important part of our economy, and they're an important feature of our migration system. But the system has been allowed to run out of control. The Government's approach is chaotic, is piecemeal, and has caused Australia to be essentially overrun with international students that are not going home at the end of their study. That's a problem for us, and it's a problem that is having secondary effects on our housing market and on our economy, and something that needs to be dealt with at the source part of that is the visa system.

JOURNALIST: So if they cut their own numbers, you might not need a cap, seems to be what you’re saying. If there was a reduction in numbers from the universities taking them in, the cap might not be needed, is that it?

JANE HUME: Part of the problem, the real problem is the root cause is the visa system, which is chaotic and piecemeal and it's allowed to go out of control under the Labor Government.

JOURNALIST: Isn't that just kicking the can down the road. I mean, migration is too high now, by your own admission. The housing crisis is happening right now. So are you just kicking the can down the road by delaying these consultations until, you know, sometime in the distant future?

JANE HUME: Actually we think that Labor might be exacerbating the problem by dealing with this in a chaotic…

JOURNALIST: But are they reducing numbers? So how are they, how are they adding to the problem by reducing numbers?

JANE HUME: We think that they are dealing with this chaotic and disorganised way that could potentially be making the problem worse. We would like to see a full plan, a plan for immigration that involves student numbers, but it also involves all of those different visas that are underneath and that are being allowed to be exploited.

JOURNALIST: How are they making the, how would that make the problem worse?

JANE HUME: We’ve now got a million either current or former students in the country, and that million current or former students is pushing up the cost of rents. It's pushing up the cost of housing. It's having an economically detrimental effect. We want to make sure that, and that million students, current and former, is a problem of this Government's making. It's more than twice the number of international students that were in Australia, when Labor came to office. This is a problem of the Government's making, and they’re approaching this in the same chaotic ways they're allowed to get out of control. We want to see a proper plan. A proper plan to deal with international student numbers, but also a proper plan to deal with this system underneath it and that's not what we're saying.