Interview with Cheng Lei, AM Agenda

3 July 2024

CHENG LEI: Let’s bring in Liberal Senator Jane Hume. Morning Jane, great to speak to you. So what do you think of this plan?

JANE HUME: Isn't it ironic that when Labor printed off the legislation for the Future Made in Australia Bill this morning, they printed it off on paper that was made overseas and that's because the last paper mill in Australia shut down under Labor. Let's face it, manufacturers are going to the wall, they've actually been going insolvent at triple the rate that they were just in the last two years alone. They're looking for an economic plan. They're not looking for spin. They're not looking for something to win elections on and that seems to be all that we've heard from the Future Made in Australia bill. What manufacturers are really looking for are.

CHENG LEI (INTERRUPTS): Ok so, paper mills and the green industry seem to be, you know, different situations, paper mills, paper manufacturing and the green industries that this bill tries to support. I mean, I've heard criticisms about the possibility of wasting taxpayers money in sectors in which Australia doesn't have an advantage.

JANE HUME: That's exactly right. We're not sure what is in this bill. Why it needs to be in a bill at all, quite frankly, if it's about grants and incentives, well, they can be done without legislation. This seems to me to be a very big headline without all that much in the way of substance. There was already a National Reconstruction Fund, that's been in place for two years now. $15 billion of borrowed funds, borrowed on behalf of the taxpayer. It hasn't expanded a single cent yet. This is the real concern. What manufacturers need are lower energy prices, they need flexible Industrial Relations laws, they need deregulation and they need lower taxes. That's what they're crying out for in an economic plan. Not a great big splash tax incentives to industries to do what they were already doing, and particularly those that are run by some very wealthy individuals. You know, quite frankly, a Future Made in Australia is ridiculous when manufacturers are struggling to keep the lights on today. So I would like to see what the substance is of this bill, other than a $45 million advertising campaign. In fact, I will bet you, I will bet you that we will see the ads for a Future Made in Australia before we see a single project funded.

CHENG LEI: Do you think that in the future, Australia can have an advantage in those green industries that, you know, in this bill, that there will be financial incentives to support?

JANE HUME: Well, the only ones that we know about now is subsidies for solar panels. Which

CHENG LEI (INTERRUPTS): Hydrogen?

JANE HUME: Looks like we would never be competitive in. Hydrogen is underway already, these production incentives. Essentially, it's a little bit like paying a barista and incentive to make your coffee, they're already making you a coffee. That's how a production incentive works. It's essentially a government subsidy for something that's already being done. So this is a real concern. Now, we haven't seen the bill yet. Once we do we’ll have a look at the bill. But to me, it looks a lot more like spin and vote, a vote winning strategy or a you know, an election strategy as opposed to a genuine economic plan.

CHENG LEI: Now earlier, we were talking about the retailer plan. That is that there will be tougher fines and also powers of divestiture for retailers and talking about the dissent from say half of the Liberal MPs. What about you?

JANE HUME: Well, I think that might be significantly overblown. I don't talk about what goes on in Party Room or what goes on in Shadow Cabinets, other than to say that this is where we have an opportunity to present legislation and colleagues have an opportunity to ask questions about it. That's exactly what happened. This is a really important policy. Grocery prices have gone up 11.4% in the last two years alone under Labor.

CHENG LEI (INTERRUPTS): That’s because inflation is happening around the world.

JANE HUME: Well, inflation is happening here in Australia, far more than it's happening around the world. Now, in fact, inflation is going down around the world and it's still going up in Australia. That's why Michele Bullock refers to it as a homegrown inflation problem. In the meantime, we have a highly concentrated market in the supermarkets and we know that farmers and small business suppliers and consumers are potentially getting the raw end of the deal here. The powers that have been proposed by the Coalition simply add one more tool in the shed for the ACCC to use. It's a last response. It's not a first response. It's definitely a last resort policy, and it's got enough safeguards around it to make sure that should it be implemented, there has to be a consumer benefit for it at the end. We need to make sure that jobs aren't lost, that prices do the right thing and that shareholder value is maintained. So there are safeguards around this policy, it’s about striking the right balance.

CHENG LEI: For sure, thanks so much, Jane. Yep, we’ll see what happens with this plan, thanks so much for your time. Liberal Senator Jane Hume.