Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

1 May 2024 

LAURA JAYES: Let's go back to some of our main stories. Now, I want to bring in the Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Jane, good to see you. We are standing by to hear from Anthony Albanese, this Cabinet meeting, is National Cabinet meeting, we're told it is wrapping up shortly. I'm a bit worried about the length of this meeting. Hopefully this is just the first of many meetings.

JANE HUME: Yes, well, you'd hope so. It does seem to be quite brief on a subject that is a scourge right around the country. It's good that it's happening. Don't get me wrong, it's really important that we have all levels of government working to address this issue that is a cancer in our society. At the same time, though, we also know what works. There is a fourth national action plan on the elimination of violence towards women and their children, that was put together by the previous government, that was implemented, inked by this government and there are some really good programmes that are available right now today. In fact, there was one that we funded back in October, sorry, in March 2022, which was a replication of a project in Tasmania called Project Vigilance, that put electronic monitoring on offenders that had come out of prison to make sure and the police monitored that electronic monitoring to see whether they approached their victims again, and it would alert the victims to let them know that they need to put their safety plans in place. It actually moved the dial in Tasmania; it was a great program. Unfortunately, that program funding was cut or reprioritised, I think was the phrase that was used in the Labor October 2022 budget. This is a real shame, because these are the things that work. That's what we need to do to replicate those preventative measures on the ground towards things that actually work.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah, there are things that work absolutely. But you can't say that a government of any stripe, including the previous Coalition government solved this intractable problem. There were still problems around the side, domestic violence was still happening. In fact, this was a big focus of Malcolm Turnbull's government at the time. But when it comes down to it, we're talking about, you know, measures after the fact. Why are we talking about prevention? Is that just too hard?

JANE HUME: Well, that's exactly right. No, I think that it is really important that we talk about prevention and again, there's some great programs out there that talk to fathers, particularly fathers that are at risk, and men that are at risk. There's programs in prisons that have worked particularly well and it's all about bringing those to scale and making sure that they're replicable. But at the same time, you want to ensure that, you know, it's not a one size fits all approach, making something replicable, but not one size fits all is not an easy thing to do. But the most important thing is to fund the things that make a difference that we know make a difference and you're right. It's about prevention, not just putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, we want to make sure that we deal with the problem at its source before it occurs, not afterwards. That said, it's still really important that we put those wraparound services, particularly around women that are trying to flee domestic violence, relationships or relationships where domestic violence is occurring. We know that it takes sometimes, you know, 3, 4, 5, even a dozen times before a woman actually leaves a violent relationship successfully. It's so important that we that those women have the support network around them to make sure that they can find somewhere to live, that they can find the support that they need, that they have someone to help look after their children while they get themselves back on their feet. It's not an easy task. No one is saying it's easy. Let's hope that this National Cabinet is the first step.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah, let's hope so. We will hear from Anthony Albanese, I'm told now in the next 15 minutes. Let me ask you just before we go about another issue. Another measure before the Budget is formally announced. Today we had the Treasurer Jim Chalmers talking about making foreign investment easier for some trusted partners. Make sense?

JANE HUME: Well, it certainly makes sense and in fact, in a while I haven't read the speech that he's giving today on that particular issue, I have seen the headlines. That's certainly something that we will be open to. I'd like to understand the details of what it is that he's proposing. But it was something that the Coalition certainly tried to do in government, we brought about some significant reforms into our Foreign Investment Review laws to ensure that those lower risk investors found that there was less grit in the wheels of the foreign investment process, but at the same time that particularly for investments into more critical industries and infrastructure, that there were processes in place to make sure that we had safeguarded our national security interests as well. So this is fundamentally important. Nearly one in 10 jobs in Australia are within companies that have direct foreign investment, so we want to make sure that the door is open. My concern here, though, seems to be the mixed messages that we're getting from Anthony Albanese and particularly Jim Chalmers around this. With one breath, he's saying that he wants foreign investment, with the other breath he's saying that he's giving away nearly half a billion dollars to an American company that's investing in quantum computing and don't get me wrong. I think that quantum computing has a fantastic future here in Australia. There are plenty of companies that are trying to break that barrier to quantum computing. Why this one was picked, I'm not entirely sure. It bothers me that the Chief Scientist who was part of the technical team advising on this particular investment was so lukewarm towards it, said, well, look, it's a good thing that we will have a quantum computing commercial option in Australia, and hopefully, it'll get there at least as fast as some of the other options that are out there. That to me, doesn't sound like a, you know, a resounding endorsement of an investment made by a Labor government with let's face it, taxpayers money and the real question here is, whether it be in solar panels, whether it be in quantum computing, how are these investments going to affect the taxpayers that are paying for them? How is it going to help them put groceries on the table or bring energy prices down? How will it make housing more affordable because quite frankly, that inflation that sticky homegrown inflation is still the number one issue in Australia and while Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese can talk about anything else, that's the problem that Australians want dealt with by their government now and by investing in these, you know, these big pictures, these big picture items. That's terrific. That may well be part of the growth story, but getting inflation under control is the most important thing first.

LAURA JAYES: Jane, thanks so much as always, we'll see you soon. Bye.