Interview with James Glenday, ABC News Breakfast

24 March 2025

JAMES GLENDAY: For more on the Budget, let's bring in the Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume, who is in Canberra for us this morning. Jane, good morning.

JANE HUME: Good morning James.

JAMES GLENDAY: If you win the next election, when would the Coalition hope to have the Budget back into surplus?

JANE HUME: Well, James, unfortunately, all Australians have been poorer in the last three years. They've been poorer under Labor. They've seen a collapse in their living standards and despite two windfall surpluses in Budgets, previous Budgets, we're now seeing red ink as far as the eye can see, there are deficits now that are baked into Budgets for the next decade. We don't think that that is good enough. The Coalition wants to see a Budget that will restore standards of living and improve our prosperity and our opportunities most importantly, and restore those fiscal guardrails, those budget disciplines that have served Australians so well for decades past. A Coalition Government, a Dutton led Coalition Government, will restore those fiscal guardrails to try and get us back to a structural surplus, or structural balanced Budget over the medium term. Now that's not going to be an easy thing to do, because let's face it, Labor's increased spending has been baked in to this Budget and future Budgets. So it's going to take an awful lot of fiscal discipline to get us back to where Australians need to be, and we need to be there, because we need that economic resilience as ballast in stormy seas. There's going to be some hard times ahead. That's what Australians expect. They expect a Budget that will restore that fiscal ballot, sorry, that fiscal discipline and that economic resilience to get us through those tough times ahead.

JAMES GLENDAY: So do you have a specific year? What's medium term? Three years, five years?

JANE HUME: Well, I'm sorry, James. We have to see the Budget on Tuesday night before we could possibly make a call like that. We know that Labor has spent $12 for every $1 that they have saved in previous Budgets. This Budget, we expect will be exactly the same now that baked in spending is very difficult to manage, difficult to unwind, but that's why we want to see those fiscal disciplines restored, a tax to GDP ratio, an objective of making sure that government expenditure doesn't grow at a faster rate than the economy in an unsustainable way out into the never never. We have to bring back those rules into what we do in order to maintain the economic resilience that we need.

JAMES GLENDAY: If you're just tuning in, we did have the Finance Minister Katy Gallagher on the show, defending the government's fiscal discipline earlier. So I'm not just going to go back through everything you said. Getting the Budget back into surplus would likely require some cuts, though, particularly to pay for some of your policies like nuclear power. What rate of growth, for example, is sustainable for a scheme like the NDIS do you think? Is that somewhere where you'd look to make substantial savings?

JANE HUME: When we went into opposition, we said that we would work with the government to create some sustainable savings within the NDIS. In fact, Labor embedded in their Budget an 8% growth rate in expenditure of the NDIS. That was down from 14%. Unfortunately, Labor haven't hit their own target on savings in the NDIS. That’s going to be a problem.

JAMES GLENDAY: Sorry to jump in, Senator. I just want to ask, so what would your target be? Would it be 2% or 3% growth? What would be sustainable?

JANE HUME: Well, I don't think it's unreasonable to at least hit the target that Labor set for themselves, that they've failed to hit. That would be a good start. But the most important thing is that we get the entire Budget under control. That if we're going to have these big savings, these big spending programs, that the entire Budget doesn't grow, the entire government expenditure doesn't grow at a faster rate than the economy. That's really important, because otherwise you're essentially waving the white flag. You're shrugging your shoulders and saying, this Budget is impossible to manage. The Coalition don't think that that is true. If you bring back those fiscal disciplines, you can bring us back to a state of structural balance in the future. Now, we would hope that we could get there in the medium term, but we need to see the Budget on Tuesday night, in order to see what it is that we're dealing with.

JAMES GLENDAY: You're the Shadow public, Minister for the Public Service. Do you know how many public servants you would want to cut? Do you have a number to the nearest thousand?

JANE HUME: Well, we know that there are 36,000 additional public servants that have been appointed by this government. That's a 20% rise, 40 new public servants a day. But we also know that a bigger public service doesn't necessarily mean better service to the public and in fact, while we've seen things like the Health Department blow out by around 40%, bulk billing has collapsed. A doubling in the size of the Energy and Environment portfolio, and yet, at the same time, approval times have blown out and emissions have gone up.

JAMES GLENDAY (INTERRUPTS): So would you cut 36,000 public servants if you win? If you win the election, will you cut 36,000 jobs?

JANE HUME: James, we know that the size of the public service doesn't necessarily mean that we will deliver better services. We have said that we will deliver better services. We think that the size of the Public Service has blown out too far. We will see the numbers on Tuesday night to exactly just how far it has blown out.

JAMES GLENDAY: So, no specifics there.

JANE HUME: James, can I just say, before we move on. You know, I think that people can safely say that they've seen the failure in public services from this Government. It now takes about 50% longer to apply for an age pension. It takes five times longer to apply for a low income card. If you ring the parenting and family's helpline, you'll be on hold for an hour. A bigger public service is not necessarily a better public service and the Coalition would be committed to delivering a better public service.

JAMES GLENDAY: If you're cutting those public services though, won't those wait times just blow out more and more?

JANE HUME: We're committed to not cutting anybody from front line service. We'll guarantee the essential services that Australians deserve. That's that's a given. That's a guarantee.

JAMES GLENDAY: There is a piece in the Australian Financial Review today saying that the Coalition will look at relaxing the safeguard mechanism, which puts pressure on big polluters to reduce their carbon emissions. Is that something you are in support of?

JANE HUME: What we're in support of is lower energy prices. That's the most important thing that we can deliver right now. Because electricity prices have blown out by 32%. Gas prices by 34%. That makes it harder for businesses to do business. It makes it harder for households to pay their household energy bills. We've said that we will lower energy prices by bringing more gas into the system. We will fast track approvals for gas, because more supply will affect prices and in the long term, as those coal fired power stations retire, we'll replace them with zero emissions nuclear energy, and that will bring down prices in the long term as it has right across, right across the world.

JAMES GLENDAY: Just before I let you go Jane Hume, when should we expect that the Coalition will begin rolling out detailed, costed policies? Will it start on Thursday with the Opposition Leader's Budget reply?

JANE HUME: James, we'll reveal the costings to all our policies in the due process of the election campaign, as has been done by oppositions for many, many years.

JAMES GLENDAY: So not this week?

JANE HUME: You will see full costings of all our policies in the lead up to the election. I can guarantee that. But what I want to see this week is a Budget that delivers, not just for the next five weeks, but for the next five years, this will be the test for Labor, and if they fail this test, they will have failed the Australian people and that's why you are always poorer under Labor.

JAMES GLENDAY: Okay, all right. Jane Hume, we are out of time. Thank you for speaking to us this morning.

JANE HUME: Thanks James.