Interview Stephen Cenatiempo, 2CC

8 October 2024

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Normally we would catch up with Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor at this time on a Tuesday, but we are joined this morning by Shadow Minister for Finance and Chair of the Select Committee on the Cost of Living, Jane Hume. Jane, good morning.

JANE HUME: Good morning Stephen.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: That Resolve Political Monitor spells doom and gloom for the government. But there are some lessons for the Coalition in it too.

JANE HUME: Well, I think the real lesson here is that while the government can go out there and tell people that they've never been better off, that it's all good, that there are brighter days ahead, families are really struggling. They're struggling to pay their grocery bills. They're struggling to pay their health bills, housing bills, rents are up. Their mortgages are up and they're looking for answers. If Australia's interest rates should have already come down, as they've come down in the rest of the world, they've come down in the US and UK, in Canada and New Zealand, but they haven't in Australia and that's because the government is not doing its fair share of the heavy lifting in the fight against inflation. That's beginning to play out in the polls.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: There's no doubt about that and look, and most of us out here know that the cost of living crisis is front of mind for all of us and we know what the problems are, but we don't hear a lot of solutions from either the government or the opposition on how it's going to change.

JANE HUME: Well, certainly getting your monetary policy and your fiscal policy aligned is the best way to get inflation under control, unless you've got your fiscal policy and your monetary policy aligned, it's like having one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator. Now, the RBA has been pushing on that brake for a really long time now and unless the government does its fair share of the heavy lifting, well then we're going to see interest rates stay higher for longer, and it can only do its fair share of the heavy lifting by making some tough decisions and that it has failed to do. Instead, it's continually spent more money on things like, uh, production tax credits for miners that are to do what they were already going to do, $13.7 billion or $1 billion on solar panels, creating a solar panel industry that will never be competitive in Australia, or half a billion on an American made quantum computer. These are decisions that the Coalition simply would not make. Making the tough decisions is the government's responsibility. Labor have failed to do so.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: No doubt about that. But we are heading towards an election, and there are some rumours that we could be headed to an election sooner rather than later. Which means we need to have solutions and it's all well and good to say the government's wasted all this money, but that money's gone. You can't get it back.

JANE HUME: The most important thing we can do now is establish productivity back into our economy. Because without productivity, every time you have a wage rise, that becomes inflationary. Productivity allows us to have increased wages without the inflation that goes with it. So we need to make sure we get electricity prices down. We need to make sure that we get rid of some of the rough edges of our industrial relations system that's causing our labor productivity to go backwards. We've got to start really concentrating on deregulation and red tape, the red tape and green tape that's holding our economy back and we need lower and simpler and fairer taxes because these are the drivers of productivity, without which our economic growth will simply grind to a halt, as it already has, and we'll continue to have a high inflation environment and higher interest rates.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Senator, the Coalition has announced that it's going to vote down this Misinformation and Disinformation Bill, a more ridiculous piece of legislation I don't think I've ever seen. But are you going to be able to knock this on the head? Because this is really dangerous territory that we're heading into.

JANE HUME: We couldn't agree more. This is the second time that Labor have introduced a Misinformation and Disinformation Bill. The first one was such a disaster, there were 24,000 submissions against it during the Committee process. Now, this time around, they only allowed a week for people to submit to the Committee. That's, I think, a terrible failure of a democratic process. But the reason why this Bill is so bad is because essentially, there's an incentive for the digital platforms to over censor. They won't get fined. There will be no penalties for over censoring free speech, but there will be penalties if they under censor, and they have to decide what they consider misinformation to be. On top of that, it actually puts different Australians on different levels. So an academic can say something and that will not be considered misinformation. But if you argue with an academic, if an ordinary Australian argues with an academic, well, that could be considered misinformation and finally, the Communications Minister has unprecedented powers in this Bill. They can personally order misinformation investigations and misinformation hearings on the terms of her choosing. Now that's extraordinary. We think this is such a terrible bill. We're wondering why the government is trying to rush the legislation through. We will be focusing on defeating this legislation, first and foremost, because the free speech of Australians will be compromised.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: The dangerous thing about this legislation, and I don't and even from a political perspective, I don't understand it because let's say, for instance, you do win the next election. What stops a Coalition Government from using this legislation against the previous government, which is obviously what they're hoping to do. Um, it's one of those double edged swords that just doesn't make any sense.

JANE HUME: The moment you start defining free speech and give people the opportunity to determine what is and isn't misinformation and disinformation, you immediately curb free speech. This is not something that a Coalition Government would ever seek to do. It's a dangerous path to go on. That's why we're concentrating on defeating it.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Having said that, there do need to be limitations and we've seen since the 7th of October last year some appalling scenes on the streets of cities across Australia again yesterday and we're expecting more today. I guess the positive is though, uh, most sensible people pause to reflect on the tragedy that happened on the 7th of October. Uh, now, I believe that you attended one of the rallies yesterday?

JANE HUME: I did. I attended the rally in Canberra, and I also attended a very somber memorial at the Israeli Embassy last night. These were very moving events where we heard some of the most tragic stories about people that had been involved in the October 7th incursion by Hamas, by the and from the families themselves, who still, let's not forget, there were 1200 Israelis that were killed that day. There are still 101 hostages that remain and unless those hostages are returned, there is no hope for a ceasefire. There is no hope for a peaceful solution, because these are terrorist organisations that have brutally and inhumanely attacked a liberal democratic nation.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: The lack of leadership from our own government has been appalling on this, but I will give credit to where it's due that Mark Butler, the Health Minister at least, was uh, um, I guess very, very, uh, strident in his support for Israel while these vigils were taking place. But, I mean, the reason we're seeing all of these Pro-Hamas and Pro-Hezbollah rallies take place is because they don't seem to be afraid of government and authorities at the moment.

JANE HUME: That is true, there seems to be laws in place that are simply being ignored. Israel has every right to defend its territory and to defend its people from existential threats. The Coalition has been consistent on this from day one. We stand alongside our ally. We're not treating them like an adversary, and we support the Australians of Jewish faith because they are cherished Australian citizens who have contributed so much to our nation for so many years and the fact that there has been prevarication, equivocation over the last 12 months has really enabled those that would seek to intimidate, that would seek to incite violence against a cherished group of Australian citizens.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Well said. Senator, thanks for your time this morning.

JANE HUME: Thanks very much, Stephen.