Interview with Greg Jennett, ABC Afternoon Briefing

Interview with Greg Jennett

15 May 2024

Topics: Federal Budget, inflation.

GREG JENNETT: Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume joined us straight after Senate Question Time Jane Hume good to have you back with us in peak budget season as we are this Wednesday. Why don't we start with energy bill relief? Do you need $300 off your power bill?

JANE HUME: Well, everybody needs $300 off their power bill. In fact, we'd like to see more. The government came to office saying that they were going to reduce power bills by $275. That was the promise that they made over 90 times when they were in opposition in the lead up to the election. Of course, once they were elected, that promise went out the window. This energy bill relief now is for households that really need it, certainly, but it's unfortunately for everybody. I personally don't need $300 off my energy bills. What I would like to see is my energy bills come down organically because there is more supply in the system which brings down the price of energy. That's not just good for households. It's good for businesses as well.

GREG JENNETT: Sure, but on the measure before you. Are you in favor of means testing, would you be prepared to move an amendment to that effect when this is debated?

JANE HUME: I think the Government's been pretty clear today, that because they haven't negotiated this particular measure with the states that's going to be impossible. They want to get the money out of the door quickly. I can understand that because families are out there doing it really tough right now. I chair the Cost of Living Committee and have been right around the country and heard people talking about the extent to which they are often in energy debt or energy hardship. Those energy hardship programs are on the increase. The energy companies are telling us that. So I think that this money will be appreciated by all Australians, but what they really want to see is their energy bills come down in a sustainable way. The only way to do that is to put more energy into the system, and ideally, more gas.

GREG JENNETT: Of course, and then eventually nuclear under your scenario. And when we're going to learn about that?

JANE HUME: Well, we've been talking about that for some time now. Just in the last two years alone, we've been urging the Government to consider lifting the moratorium on nuclear energy. Any opposition to that is simply ideological belligerence. But there is a future for nuclear in Australia as part of the energy mix supporting renewables in the future. And we've seen that overseas it's actually brought the price of energy down as it supports renewables in a net zero emissions energy future.

GREG JENNETT: Alright, since you’ve taken us to clean energy let's talk about the Future Made in Australia. Are you happy for Australia to sit out this global race towards cleaner energy sources, cleaner fuels, green hydrogen, or powered of course by solar and wind? Why not back it in?

JANE HUME: When you speak about it in a binary way, either it's Labor's way or it's nothing, that's not necessarily the case. Labor's policy has $13.7 billion in taxpayer subsidies to a very small number of companies. None of which I might add, are run by people that are doing it tough. The directors of these companies are already pretty well off. Quite frankly, we want a sustainable and a really thriving and vibrant in a critical minerals and rare earth sector. That's great. There's so much demand for those products out there. Do they really need a Government subsidy to get there? Wouldn't it be better to just reduce power prices? Wouldn't it be better to reduce approval times it takes nearly 16 years at the moment to get approval for a mine-

GREG JENNETT: But that’s caught up in this isn’t it? Approval processes are part of that.

JANE HUME: That's on top, that’s not included in this $13.7 billion of subsidies. And wouldn't it be great to make workplaces more flexible, not less flexible, to reduce the costs of doing business that would create a vibrant rare earths and critical minerals or industry. On hydrogen, the best thing we could do for them is reduce the price of energy because hydrogen needs gas. Now we've seen a Future Gas Strategy come from the government. It was announced just a few days before the budget but there was nothing in the budget that would support that Future Gas Strategy.

GREG JENNETT: So you want fossil fuels to be funded? Gas and or other sources of fossil fuels funded directly by the Government?

JANE HUME: We know that the energy system that the grid needs more reliable supportive energy to support the renewable sector. We know that. But there doesn't seem to be any appetite from this Government to open up those gas fields and projects in places like in Narrabri, in Beetaloo, in Scarborough, or in Bass Strait, which we know is going to support the transition to a net zero future. So they can't say they want it on one hand and then not do the work on the other to support the renewable energy future with gas.

GREG JENNETT: If the Government was prepared to broaden out the eligibility so that it captured firms in Australia that might only be medium capitalisation at the moment that have the potential to grow. Would that be satisfactory? Could you support that?

JANE HUME: Well at the moment this only applies to a very small number of companies now, I'd imagine that anybody would be eligible to get the production tax rebate. However, there are barriers to entry to these industries. And you don't see too many people that are lining up at FoodBank saying ‘actually what I'll do is get into critical minerals’. Quite frankly, this is a demonstration of the priorities of this government, which is tax rebates to people that are already very well off to companies that are already doing what they were doing and ignoring those that are really doing tough by getting down inflation.

GREG JENNETT: So you're not going to support Future Made in Australia?

JANE HUME: No, no, not what we said.

GREG JENNETT: Okay, that's what I'm pretty sure I was pretty clear on that being the position of Peter Dutton.

JANE HUME: What you're saying is that the Future Made in Australia is just one subsidy of $13.7 billion. Now we're not going to support that. We do question why they're putting a billion dollars behind solar panels, that potentially might never be competitive. Even their own Productivity Commissioner has said that that potentially is an industry that may never be competitive in Australia that will constantly be relying on subsidies. And we do question why they've given half a billion dollars to a quantum computing company that's based in America. Why that's the future made in Australia, I can't understand that. There are plenty of quantum computing companies here that could qualify for that. There are lots of things in this Future Made in Australia program, quite frankly, it's a grab bag of goodies. I think we need to delve a little bit further into understanding exactly what it is.

GREG JENNETT: Thank you for clearing that up. If it's not satisfactory though, would you repeal it in government?

JANE HUME: Well, we're not entirely sure what the Future Made in Australia Act is all about. Why it's even necessary? Why do we need to put a framework around this grab bag of goodies? If you want to have a clean energy future, well certainly the market will decide that we're going in that direction. It already is. Why do we need to enact legislation around it? This Government just loves making rules for really no apparent reason.

GREG JENNETT: Alright, we'll keep track of that as it morphs into an act or a bill and is debated in this place. Jane Hume we'll wrap it up there.