Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

29 May 2024

LAURA JAYES: Welcome back, the Immigration Minister is in damage control, as he pledges to urgently review dozens of failed attempts to cancel Visas of serious offenders. Government Ministers have stepped in this morning to defend Andrew Giles as pressure mounts on him to resign. Joining me now is the Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Jane, good to see you. This is certainly sucking the oxygen out of this place, isn't it?

JANE HUME: Well, isn't it extraordinary that Ministers are upfront defending Andrew Giles, but behind the scenes, I think that they're all ready to move on from this continuing debacle. We've been talking about this now since November last year and it does seem to be one shambolic decision after another from Minister Giles. Quite frankly now, he is pointing the finger at his own Department. He's pointing the finger at the AAT, so far they have blamed the courts, they have blamed the Coalition. At some point, somebody has to take responsibility. The decisions that this Government is making and if Minister Giles can't step up, and either take responsibility and resign, well Anthony Albanese must sack him, you must sack him and you must do it today. Not only you must you sack him, but they must immediately repeal this direction 99 that is now allowing more and more criminals to wander our streets, that are non citizens, allowing them to continue to commit crimes against Australian citizens. The first responsibility of the Government has to be looking after your citizens. This Government has failed to do so on every test.

LAURA JAYES: The direction 99, do you really want it repealed? I mean, shouldn't it just be down to ministerial discretion?

JANE HUME: Well, the Coalition suggested when it was initially floated that this was going to be a bad idea and indeed, evidence at estimates yesterday said that the department had also warned Minister Giles of the potential consequences of this direction. Now the AAT are only responding to the direction that the minister has given them.

LAURA JAYES: Really?

JANE HUME: So you cannot point the finger at them, yes, that's right.

LAURA JAYES: Shouldn't it be an independent panel?

JANE HUME: Well, they are an independent panel, but the direction says that they need to consider how long the individual has spent in Australia when they are making the decision whether to cancel a visa or to allow them to keep it.

LAURA JAYES: You know, it seems like there is a bit of a gray area here and legislation then. How much you need to take into account compared to the crimes that they have committed?

JANE HUME: That’s what the Minister is saying. The Minister is saying oh, no, no AAT, that's not what I meant. Well, it is what you meant, because it’s there in the direction. If you don't want the AAT to respond to the direction, repeal the direction. It’s that simple.

LAURA JAYES: Do you really think a change in personnel will change things here? Is it just the Minister?

JANE HUME: Well, I do think it’s just the Minister. I think that anybody in the Labor Party, particularly those in marginal seats right now, who realised that, you're right, the oxygen is being sucked out of every message the Government wants to sell.

LAURA JAYES: You don't mind it, though?

JANE HUME: Well, quite frankly, Minister Giles has been described by our Leader as the gift that keeps on giving, because every single question time, we want to be asking questions about the economy. We want to be asking questions about why inflation isn't coming down faster. We want to be asking questions about why Australians are paying mortgages that are much higher than they need to be. But because of Minister Giles’ incompetence that seems to be the only question that needs to be asked with a matter of urgency.

LAURA JAYES: So is Minister Giles delaying your nuclear plans again?

JANE HUME: As we've said many times, Laura, the Coalition's nuclear policy will be announced when the Coalition is ready to announce it. It has nothing to do with Minister Giles and he's got his own problems to deal with.

LAURA JAYES: He certainly does. A few quick things I want to ask you about. Ed Husic, floating this idea yesterday, of a 30% company tax rate cut for basically manufacturing and robotics businesses. Is that a good idea?

JANE HUME: Well, we took a reduction in the company tax rate to the Parliament back in 2018 and Minister Husic, who was then in the opposition, voted against it, as did Jim Chalmers.

LAURA JAYES: He’s talking specifically for robotics, so it’s within his realm.

JANE HUME: Well, that's right. I'm wondering whether he's floated that idea with the Treasurer.

LAURA JAYES: I don't think so.

JANE HUME: The Budget was handed down only just a couple of days ago. I mean, there is a Cabinet, the way these things can be discussed and the Cabinet should theoretically speak with one voice.

LAURA JAYES: Does it matter where good ideas come from?

JANE HUME: Well, is it the Government's idea or is it Ed Husic’s idea?

LAURA JAYES: Well, Ed Husic still, is that a good idea?

JANE HUME: Well, it will be interesting to see if Jim Chalmers decides to adopt it? We know what our position is. We took that position back in 2018. That company taxes should have been lowered back then and unfortunately, they voted against it. Now, the good news was, we managed to negotiate with the crossbench to ensure that small businesses with turnover of less than $50 million did receive that company tax cut down to 25%. But large companies are still paying 30%. If that's what Ed Husic would like to change, perhaps he should float that with his Treasurer and take it to the Cabinet processes, rather than announcing it at a conference.

LAURA JAYES: Well, it’s caused a good discussion. So maybe that's something new. Who knows. I want to ask you about Jacinta Allan’s announcement yesterday and this was to a point, a Parliamentary Secretary, an inaugural Parliamentary Secretary for a changing men's behavior or men's behavior change. I really don't know how I feel about this, to be honest. Because we look at what's happening right around Australia at the moment. There's a Domestic Violence Crisis. We have meeting after meeting, nothing gets done. Governments can't be the only bodies to fix this. It's all about responsibility. I get what the Jacinta Allan Government is trying to do here with this appointment. But it still doesn't sit right.

JANE HUME: It looks like window dressing to me. If it is important to this Government, why is the position a Parliamentary Secretary role. It does sound to me like a little bit of window dressing around a really important issue that involves genuine cultural, genuine cultural change.

LAURA JAYES: Virtue signaling?

JANE HUME: Potentially so, that's exactly right and I'd like to see what this Parliamentary Secretary's KPIs are. What is it?

LAURA JAYES: What's his job?

JANE HUME: You're exactly right. What's he going to achieve and how is he going to achieve it? And at the end of this term of Government, what is it that they're going to be able to hang their hat on and say I did that. Well that would be really interesting to find out because quite frankly, I think we'd be better off with a Minister for a change of Government.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, yeah, I thought you might say that. It does feel like conversion therapy realm type appointment, doesn't it? I don't want to diminish this too much, because something needs to be done and someone's thought of this idea. But should we wait and see what it can achieve?

JANE HUME: There are plenty of experts out there that work in this field, I doubt that this Parliamentary Secretary is one of those.

LAURA JAYES: Jane Hume, good to see you as always.

JANE HUME: Thanks Laura.