Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

26 March 2025

LAURA JAYES: Joining me now is Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Jane, good to see you. This is about to happen in the House. Are you tempted?

JANE HUME: Well, if this is the case, it shouldn't be a problem for the Coalition because we've already said that we're not going to support these tax cuts. What I think will be fascinating is where the crossbench go. Will Allegra Spender, the queen of tax reform, calls for tax reform, actually support what is essentially just an election sweetener? I mean, we've said time and time again, this is a cruel hoax. It's not tax reform at all. This is simply an election commitment and it's an election commitment of 73 cents a day, in 15 months time. It really doesn't touch the sides of a cost of living crisis. It's been driven by Labor's own policies.

LAURA JAYES: So if there's a vote today in the House, the Coalition will vote against it?

JANE HUME: The Coalition will vote against it. The Coalition will not support these, you know, this ridiculous policy which has clearly been put there for no other reason than for electoral purposes. Last night’s Budget was all about the next five weeks, it had nothing to do with the next five years. It had nothing to do with the next 50 years and it certainly doesn't make up for the lost three years of standard of living under this government.

LAURA JAYES: So are you going to vote against these tax cuts but still claim to be the party of lower taxes?

JANE HUME: Well, I can assure you that this is not a genuine tax reform. This is simply an election sweetener. That's all it is. You can see it was done at the last minute.

LAURA JAYES: So now you're the party of tax reform, not lower taxes?

JANE HUME: We want to see lower and simpler and fairer taxes. We've said that consistently. But at $17 billion, an election sweetener that is less than $5 a week, starting in 15 months, calling that a cost of living commitment, give me a break. This is pathetic politics from a desperate Labor Government.

LAURA JAYES: So we better be expecting something pretty big from the Coalition during the campaign or tomorrow, right?

JANE HUME: Well, I will, I'm not going to preempt the Coalition's Budget reply, that's a very career limiting move is to preempt your leaders’ policy announcements. But I will say that you will always see from a Coalition Government, a back to basics approach on the economy, getting the economy back on track, by getting the Budget under control, sustaining a lowering of inflation in a sustainable way, delivering much lower energy prices, through a completely different energy package and most importantly, bringing down the cost of housing reigning in migration, which is 1.8 million people in five years under Labor. That's an extraordinary amount and most importantly, keeping the country safe. The first responsibility of a government is to keep its people safe and quite frankly, the fact that so much money has been ripped out of the Defence spending Budget, in this Budget and in previous ones from this government, I think, speaks volumes of this government’s priorities.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, well, let's talk about energy. Because why did you agree to the energy rebate, the top up, the increase when you haven't even seen the Budget?

JANE HUME: So our policy is going to be to put gas into the system immediately, but in order for that to reach the default market offer is going to take some time, and we know that Australians are struggling right now. So we've supported a subsidy, Labor’s subsidy, which, let's face it, these were supposed to be temporary. Now, they seem to be permanent.

LAURA JAYES (TALKS OVER): You're making them permanent, though.

JANE HUME: Cover of bipartisanship. Unfortunately, people are paying such high energy prices, and you know this subsidy isn't going to cover half of the expected increase next year for people in New South Wales, for instance. But we know that people need help, particularly with energy, and not just families and households, but small businesses too. So this will help the transition to a Coalition's new energy approach, which is going to be about injecting gas into the system, to lower prices quickly, but then most importantly, as those coal fired power stations retire, replacing them with zero emissions nuclear energy, to change the energy mix and bring down prices sustainably in the long term.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, we look forward to all the details on that, Jane, but so give us a kind of frame of what the Coalition is all about going to this election campaign. Jim Chalmers is on his feet. Stand by. Let's just hear what he has to say.