Interview with James Glenday & Bridget Brennan, ABC News Breakfast
17 February 2025
JAMES GLENDAY: Now all eyes will be on the Reserve Bank Of course, as we've mentioned this morning, as it considers the official cash rate at its first two day meeting of the year. The RBA will announce the board's decision tomorrow, with homeowners hoping for an interest rate cut. Well, for more, the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume joins us on the couch. Jane, thank you so much for coming in.
JANE HUME: Good to be with you both.
JAMES GLENDAY: Time for a rate cut?
JANE HUME: Well, we're not going to be pre-empting the RBA’s decision. In fact, muscling the RBA is something that a Labor government has done, but certainly not something that a Coalition would do. What I will say, though, is that the average mortgage holder in Australia has paid an additional $50,000 a year on their mortgage under a Labor government. So no wonder they're crying out for relief.
JAMES GLENDAY: I mean, let's just, we better say this, Labor is going to say inflation was much higher when Scott Morrison left office, and now they've brought it back down. They're going to say, You're a big part to blame of that. You can have that debate during the election campaign. But is it time for a cut? Do you think you look across the economy and go, yeah, just a little bit of easing with people right now?
JANE HUME: Well, let me just correct you first that the average inflation rate under a coalition government was 2.2%...
JAMES GLENDAY (interrupts): Over the time.
JANE HUME: …it's been 4.1% under this government over their time. Inflation has been too high for too long, and that's because of decisions that the government has made. And Michele Bullock, the Reserve Bank Governor, has said as much, that government spending was one of the pressures that has pushed interest rates, that's pushed inflation up. That's meant that inflation stays higher for longer, and interest rates have stayed higher for longer. Now, of course, we want to see interest rates come down. Obviously, interest rates were, the cash rate was at 0.35% when we left office, it's now at 4.35%. There's been 13 consecutive rate hikes, 12 of them under this government. If there is a reduction in interest rates, well, that will be welcome relief to homeowners, to mortgage holders that have suffered so much under this government, who have seen their cost of living go up so dramatically, and particularly their mortgage repayment.
JAMES GLENDAY: I think the answer to my question was, yes, you do think it's a good time for it but anyway.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: I mean, the government would say, when you look across the world, there have been similar economic challenges in other developed nations. It Wasn't this a global challenge, and the government did a pretty good job of steadying the ship,
JANE HUME: And yet interest rates came down across the developed nation last year. So there was relief in other countries before there was here, and that was because of decisions that the government had made that kept interest rates too high for too long.
JAMES GLENDAY: Peter Dutton was out yesterday talking about insurance, saying insurance is too expensive. He even flagged this idea that maybe a future Coalition government could break up some of the companies, is that something you're seriously going to do?
JANE HUME: There's been a lot of pressure on insurance companies that have pushed premiums up really high, and it's one of the great expenses that people have felt during this cost of living crisis. Insurance premiums have gone up around 19% that means that people make decisions to under insure or not insure at all. That's not a good thing. One of the pressures that we've seen on insurance is inflation itself. Because, of course, when inflation goes up, things like building costs go up when there's disruption on building sites, for instance, when the cost of building goes up because of an unruly CFMEU…
JAMES GLENDAY: Sorry to interrupt, just to bring you back to the question, just to bring you back to bring it back to the question, would you actually, I mean, supermarkets, you've spoken about, I think there's a few different kind of industries you've looked at, but now insurance, would you actually seriously consider breaking them up? The Liberal Party, the party of small business and business, would you actually do that?
JANE HUME: Well, I think it's really important that we have competition in the insurance sector. There's no doubt about that, and that's something that we could look at.
JAMES GLENDAY: Okay, interesting.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: ABC has some pretty promising results for the Coalition in a poll of around 40,000 people conducted by YouGov, it does say, though, that neither party looks to be coming out with a clear majority, and that whoever wins the next election would have to form some sort of alliance with the crossbenchers. Are you in the position to do that?
JANE HUME: We think that the worst possible outcome would be a hung parliament, and of course, a vote for anybody other than the Liberal Party, other than the national party, other than a coalition member, is a vote for Anthony Albanese, and potentially a hung parliament that would cause chaos. It would cause chaos politically, but also economically as well. Australians cannot afford another three years of Anthony Albanese. So we would suggest that the best way to avoid a hung parliament is to vote for a member of the Coalition.
JAMES GLENDAY: Before we let you go. If the Coalition was to get around 70, 72 seats, something like that, you couldn't see yourself governing with the Teals on paper, many of the Teals have similar backgrounds before politics to you, and I just wondered, would you work with them?
JANE HUME: On average, the Teals have voted with the Greens around 78% of the time. Around with labor, around 75% of the time, and around with the Coalition, around 18% of the time.
JAMES GLENDAY: So there’s no common ground there?
JANE HUME: I think it's really important to look at what people do rather than what people say. We're planning on going to this election to win the election, because Australians deserve better than what they've had for the last three years.
JAMES GLENDAY: Jane Hume, we appreciate you coming in on the couch. Thank you very much, and lovely to see you supporting a show that's broadcast out of Melbourne as well.
JANE HUME: Absolutely. We love a good Melbourne show.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Best city in the world hey Jane. We're trying to convince Jane, James, we’ll get there.
JANE HUME: You don’t need to convince me.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: We’ll get there, Jane and I are on board.