Interview with Dales Whyte, 4RO Breakfast

17 January 2025

DALES WHYTE: This is 4RO with Boodles Big Breakfast, the Bee Gee’s ‘More than a woman’. And joining us on the phone at the moment is Senator Jane Hume Good morning, Senator. How are you?

JANE HUME: Very well indeed Dales. Thank you very much for having me today.

DALES WHYTE: Excellent. Thank you for being with us. One of your opposition portfolios is finance minister. I'm going to ask you straight out. The Federal Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, has allegedly come out and contradicted the Prime Minister's claim that funding will be delivered this year for the Bruce Highway. Now, I should point out, Rockhampton is in the centre of the most dangerous part of the Bruce Highway. The money allegedly won't be released until 2028. You would have the microscope on it. What's the story?

JANE HUME: I am completely baffled by this announcement. Either the Prime Minister doesn't know what he's talking about, or the Finance Minister doesn't know what she's talking about, but unfortunately, both are very believable. We want to make sure that Labor publicly releases the full timing of its $7.2 billion commitment to the Bruce Highway, because otherwise the credibility of the Labor Government is totally trashed. They've spent the last two and a half years cutting the funding for the Bruce Highway. Now they've made this big announcement, the Albanese Government's first big commitment with the Crisafulli Government. But the Prime Minister either doesn't understand the announcement or the Finance Minister doesn't understand her own books. One of those is true. We just don't know which one. The Coalition have said that we will match this funding. But really importantly, we have also said that we will make sure that the CFMEU doesn't get a cut of the action to make sure that we get value for the money that is being invested.

DALES WHYTE: Now, you and the coalition have said that you will match the funding funding this year.

JANE HUME: Yes that's right. And the reason why, well, we want to make sure we understand exactly what it is Labor have announced, because we still don't know what it is that they've announced. And this is really important, because somebody showed me a statistic the other day, I think with Michelle Landry actually, that you’re five times more likely to be injured on the Bruce Highway than you are on the Hume Highway. Now that is extraordinary. And the neglect that has been shown by the Labor Government up until now, I think the original funding, the 10 billion that the Coalition invested in the last government, and now coming out with this rather amorphous announcement that we don't, we don't know where the money's coming from and when it's going to roll out.

DALES WHYTE: It certainly doesn't paint a picture of good government, does it?

JANE HUME: It’s a terrible announcement. So we'll make sure that the Bruce Highway gets the funding it needs and deserves to make sure that we can deliver safe and more reliable roads for this, what's a lifeline to Queensland.

DALES WHYTE: Well, it is a lifeline. There. It is certainly a lifeline. Now, one of the things we also spoke about earlier this week, which is what we originally were going to talk to you about, was the cutting of red tape and yeah, I got to tell you, having been a small business owner myself, one of the new laws that has come out this year, on January one, is the wage theft legislation that is red tape galore and potentially fraught for small business.

JANE HUME: It absolutely is, though we should make it very clear that if workers wages are being withheld intentionally, if there is a boss that is underpaying its employees, well, they should feel the full force of the law. But of the 2.6 million, particularly small businesses out there, the vast majority, 99.9% are good people, getting on with their day, doing what they do best, building their businesses, employing other people. But they have to wade through 300 pages of the Fair Work Act, wade through over 120 modern awards. It's really complicated to make sure that you get it right.

DALES WHYTE:It's extremely complicated to be honest.

JANE HUME: That’s right and and it's very easy to make a mistake. Well, now those people, those good people who want to do the right thing, who are trying to do the right thing, are potentially being called thieves and being sent to prison. We think that's unreasonable, so at the Coalition Rally last weekend, Peter Dutton outlined a lot of priorities for the coalition government to get Australia back on track, but one of them was reining in red tape and over regulation. Making sure that we support our small businesses, and this would be one of those ways. Industrial relations changes are so complicated, things like the definition of a casual need to be changed again. We've got to support our small businesses, in particular, those employing casual workers just simply rely on their employment contract to determine their employment status. We need to make sure that you can classify someone as casual, doesn't have to be a compulsory move to permanent.

DALES WHYTE: Excellent. As part of your look at the cutting of red tape, here's an interesting stat that might prove rather fortuitous at this time, spoke to David Grenfell, who's looking at trying to house homeless people. And homelessness is a major issue in Rockhampton due to the economy. And he said, If he was to get some land now, it would take him three years before he could start building because of red tape.

JANE HUME: Isn’t that extraordinary. I mean, that is crazy, and that's just building homes. Imagine what it's like when you try to open a mine. For instance, it's taking around 12 years now to get approval to open a new mine or tap a new gas reserve. No wonder we have an economic crisis in Australia or an energy crisis as well, making sure we get past this over regulation, this burdensome regulation, is going to be fundamental to getting our economy back on track.

DALES WHYTE: Very much. So, very much. So I agree with you wholeheartedly, Senator Hume, I know you're in a hurry. I thank you so much for your time this morning, and I look forward to having you back on again when we work out what's happening with the Bruce Highway, whether it's this year or 2028.

JANE HUME: I look forward to coming and meeting you in person, Dales. Because you know, the last time I was up at Rockhampton was back in 2022 with my entire team. Actually, we all came up to Rocky and we had dinner at The Criterion, and it was fantastic. So, and everybody tells me that Beef Week is unmissable, so I'll be back.

DALES WHYTE: Well, in that case, we'll look forward to having a steak with you and you come up, Jane.

JANE HUME: Good on you, thanks Dales.

DALES WHYTE: Thank you so much, Senator. Jane Hume so there we are. It looks like it might be 2028. Heaven knows.