Interview with Clinton Maynard, 2GB

12 March 2025

CLINTON MAYNARD: Now meanwhile, the Coalition is calling out a new online news site, sort of an online newspaper. It's called Gazette News. They say it's a fake newspaper, allegedly bankrolled by top tier donors to push independence. Senator Jane Hume has written to the Australian Electoral Commission today demanding an investigation. She says this is a disinformation campaign designed to mislead voters in key seats. Gazettes, major funders have donated more than $1.7 million to climate 200 which are then going to those candidates in those seats, those candidates who won't yet tell us who they'll support after the election. Senator Jane Hume joins me on the programme. Thank you for your time Senator.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you Clinton.

CLINTON MAYNARD: What did you make of Simon Holmes à Court's speech today to the Press Club?

JANE HUME: To be honest, I didn't watch it. I was out door knocking in Parramatta and speaking to some small businesses out there with our candidate there Katie Mullens. We actually spoke, ironically, to a butcher who was telling us that his power bill is now $2,000 a month and just going up. He was very pro our nuclear policy because he thinks that that will not only bring down prices in the long term, but it will also provide prosperity for the next generation. And that was what he was concerned about, not just his day to day worries, which are very, very real.

CLINTON MAYNARD: Well, Simon Holmes à Court is staunchly against it. He's made that clear within the first couple of minutes of his speech, that being the case, the Teals who are say, on average, 40 to 50% funded by Climate 200 are they going to support you guys after an election?

JANE HUME: No. I think everybody knows that the Teals' real role is to block the Coalition. A vote for a Teal is essentially a vote to keep Anthony Albanese in office. That's what they're there to do. They'll tell you that they're running against Labor candidates, but they're running against Labor seats where, where the Coalition believes that they have a good opportunity to win those seats back. So that's the objective of the Teals. It's always been the case. But this news today is something completely different, something we haven't seen before, which is this news site, Gazette News, that set up five local digital newspapers. But these local areas are very, very similar to Teal target seats, and they are very, very political reporting in these, on these online newspapers that are then shared on social media, ironically by the Teals. So it's kind of like a form of political advertising. But of course, it evades donation laws. It avoids any political authorisation that would normally be required for electoral matters. This sounds like it is definitely trying to circumvent the rules that apply to political

CLINTON MAYNARD: So you've written to the AEC, the Electoral Commission, what do you want them to do about it? What can they do about it?

JANE HUME: Well, we want them to understand, to investigate as to whether what they are, what these five local digital newspapers are doing is, in fact, trying to deceptively influence public opinion. Evade those donation laws that the AEC are very strict about applying and doing so intentionally in order to favour one political organisation, and that is the Teal independents in inverted commas, so that they can push a message out there and make it look like it is entirely unbiased news. So this is not unbiased news. It is a highly political advertising.

CLINTON MAYNARD: I think in election campaigns, what's critical is transparency, so we know that we are everyone, what, whose side they're on, who's funding, who I've got a message here from one of our listeners, Vlad. He listens in Castle Hill, and he tells me, on Pennant Hills Road last month, there was a billboard, and it said, the billboard said Teals equal Labor plus Green. Now Vlad doesn't know who's responsible for that. It's obviously an anti-Teal billboard, but he doesn't know who's responsible for it. There might be fine print on it. Is that the work of the Liberal Party?

JANE HUME: I couldn't tell you, but it will have an authorisation if it is from a political party, and that's what's most important. The AEC makes rules about making sure that if there is political advertising that it is appropriately authorised, that you can identify who it's coming from. So I can't answer blades question. What I can say is that any political advertising that comes from the from the Liberal Party, from the Coalition, is appropriately authorised. We know what the rules are.

CLINTON MAYNARD: In the interests of transparency, because that's what you're all about. That's what we're all about. Should there be after the election, the Coalition does not have enough seats to govern in their own right, we know that you need 20-21 seats. Would you do a deal with the Teal independents?

JANE HUME: Our objective, of course, is to win outright. We want to make sure that we are there to govern for Australians, because this has been such a bad government…

CLINTON MAYNARD: Which is exactly what the Prime Minister said…

JANE HUME: …standard of living has gone backwards.

CLINTON MAYNARD: Jane, that's exactly what the PM said to me earlier in the programme. All the polls indicate it's going to be minority government. We know you don't want to give up any votes to the minor parties, but in reality, it's probably a likelihood. Shouldn't we know who's going to do deals with whom before we vote?

JANE HUME: Well, I would hope that that was the case, and it's really important to press the Teals on who it is that they would support in the case of a hung parliament, because let's face it, you don't want your vote to be wasted. If you think you're voting for a Teal because they might support a Coalition government, you might be very sorely disappointed when it comes down to the crunch. We would hope that people wouldn't waste their vote by voting for an independent, that they would vote for a major party, and ideally the Coalition, because let's face it, we can't afford three more years of Labor. We can't afford to keep Anthony Albanese in office, but that's what our concern is the Teals will do if allowed to be elected again.

CLINTON MAYNARD: But there, as Shadow Finance Minister, you’d appreciate that Allegra Spender, for instance, she wants quite serious reform to the tax system, which is, I think, important. But if she sat down with you, and she sits down with Peter Dutton after the election, she said, ‘You know what? We'll do tax reform with you. We'll support you on tax reform. We will.’ She'll promise you supply, but you've got to drop your energy policy. Would you do that?

JANE HUME: Here's the problem. You know, Allegra can do fantastic round tables or white papers on tax reform, and she can talk about it on the media, but she'll never be in the room where the decisions are made, because you can only be in the room where a decision is made if you are a member of a major party. So it disappoints me that people that have interesting ideas deal themselves out of where the decisions are made, but not necessarily.

CLINTON MAYNARD: But not necessarily. You think about the way governments work in Europe, you have that you have Coalitions in the room when the decision you have coalitions in Europe. Same Case New Zealand, the new government in New Zealand has different parties within that room. So why could you not have, I know it's far fetched, but you might need this. Why could you not have Liberal, National and a couple of teal independents sitting around a cabinet table? Why not?

JANE HUME: Well, because, quite frankly, these are, you know, single issue organisational, single issue candidates. We want to make sure that we govern for all of Australia, not just single issue individuals.

CLINTON MAYNARD: Jane, you know what I'm trying to get out here. I just want answers to what's going to happen after. The Prime Minister's not giving them…

JANE HUME: I wish I could tell you what would happen after election Clinton, because I would like to know too. We're all campaigning extremely hard at the moment, and everything that we hear from voters is that there has been a decline in the standard of living for ordinary invaders. Now, if government has, you know it’s major responsibilities are to keep the country safe and keep the economy strong. This government has failed to do both.

CLINTON MAYNARD: While there's that decline in living standards, there's also a big decline in support for both the major parties. Primary votes are going down, and that that means you're going to need some support from somewhere.

JANE HUME: Well, it's up to us. It's up to Peter Dutton, and he's very experienced, very enthusiastic and very active team to make sure that we present a genuine alternative to Australian people. Show them that we have a plan to get the economy back on track, to get Australia back on track and deliver prosperity for not just this generation, but the next one as well.

CLINTON MAYNARD: We look forward to talking throughout the campaign. Thank you Senator Jane Hume.