Interview with Kenny Heatley, First Edition

19 August 2024

KENNY HEATLEY: Joining me live is Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Good morning Jane. China's plummeting demand for iron ore is expected to cost Australia more than $3 million. There's fears a 38% price fall since the start of 2024 is just the beginning. Does the Treasurer need to act now to further rein in spending to counter these expected losses?

JANE HUME: Kenny, the Treasurer, should have acted two years ago. The last two budget surpluses have been delivered by only two things: rising iron ore prices and rising coal prices and also bracket creep. In fact, there's been no real structural work that's been done to the budget to bring it back into surplus. Only the hard work of ordinary Australians, through their rising wages and the bracket creep and rising taxes, that's gone with it. And those luck of the draw commodity prices have delivered Jim Chalmers a surplus. We don't want to just see Australians doing the hard work. We would like to see the Treasurer doing his hard work as well.

KENNY HEATLEY: Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has scuppered plans for a new gold mine in country New South Wales on indigenous heritage grounds, despite the local land council there saying there was no sacred site at the location, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. It was approved by the New South Wales government last year, then Tanya Plibersek stops it with a section ten. Does it threaten future investment and mining potential this decision?

JANE HUME: Well, certainly the resources sector in Australia is profoundly important. As we were talking, as we were speaking just before and wrapping up our economy, our mining sector in green tape, not just red tape, but green tape can have significant effects on the prosperity of the entire nation. We want to understand the thinking behind this decision because, frankly, if this is simply an ideological boondoggle as opposed to a serious decision that's been made for with good reason, well, the consequences can be devastating.

KENNY HEATLEY: There are reports of furious opposition leader Peter Dutton and other senior Liberal MPs could seize control of the New South Wales division of the party following the council election nominations bungled. Do you think that that's in the best interest of your party ahead of next year's election?

JANE HUME: Well, I'm a Victorian and I don't like to comment on the administration and the goings on in other divisions, and I would certainly hope that they don't comment on what goes on.

KENNY HEATLEY: Well, you're a member of the federal Liberal Party are you not?

JANE HUME: I am a member of the federal Liberal Party and I can assure you that come the next federal election, that the federal Liberal Party will be very organised and ready to fight it out, because, let's face it, we can't afford three more years of labor. We have some terrific candidates already on the ground in New South Wales, people like Katie Mullens in Parramatta, Ro Knox in Wentworth and all of them have been gearing up to fight an election for some time. They're just ready for Anthony Albanese to bring it on.

KENNY HEATLEY: Okay. The CFMEU has made Australians poorer. That's according to a leading panel of building industry experts. By inflating construction costs on everything from housing to large scale public works projects. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says a deal with the government is close to put CFMEU into administration, and is confident the legislation will pass the Senate this week. Do you share that confidence?

JANE HUME: Well, I'm yet to see the details of Murray Watt's amendments to his own legislation. Our frustration last week, of course, was that the legislation that was presented to us by the newly minted Workplace Relations Minister, Murray Watt essentially looked like John Setka had written it himself. If these amendments that he is suggesting are in line with those that have been requested by the Coalition, well, that goes some way. However, there are still some concerns. And of course, with Labor it's always that the devil is in the details. So we'll make sure we put these through our party processes. But what we heard on Friday at the cost of Living inquiry, just confirmed why this is so important. Not only are building costs in Australia being inflated by around 40%, and that's not just on big construction sites. That's your home renovations, that's home building are being inflated by around 30 to 40% because of the presence of the CFMEU and the pressures that they put on building and construction firms. But moreover, we're now hearing that state governments have actually embedded clauses into their procurement policies that mean that construction firms have to deal, have to have an agreement with the CFMEU before they will be considered for government contracts. Now, this is unacceptable. And frankly, one of the reasons why the cost of living has gone up so high. It's Labor governments that have been turning a blind eye to this, both at a state and a federal level. If this legislation is strong enough to put the CFMEU into administration and clean up this corrupt union, well, that's a good start. But it certainly isn't the end.

KENNY HEATLEY: Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume appreciate your time this morning. Thank you