Interview with Pete Stefanovic, Sky

3 June 2024

PETE STEFANOVIC: Let's send things over to Canberra now. It's another busy day. Joining us live is the Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume. Jane, good to see you as always. So, a forward look at the Fair Work Commission decision. It's in a few hours time from now, but 2.6 million Australians stand to get a pay rise today. Where do you hope the Commission lands here?

JANE HUME: Well, the decision of the Fair Work Commission is an independent one, and I'm sure the Fair Work Commission will take into account all the economic factors that are surrounding the economy right now. In particular, that persistent inflation, core inflation still remains at around 4.1% and as Michele Bullock has pointed out, it is a home grown problem. Prices have risen around 5% in the last 12 months. Around 4% of that is domestic factors rather than the 1% which is international factors and in fact, Australia has one of the highest persistent rates of inflation in the developed world. That's got to come into the Fair Work decisions thinking and it's certainly something that we're going to be talking about at Senate Estimates today, when we have the Treasury of the Secretary appearing, that difference between the Government's inflation forecasts and the RBA's inflation.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Yeah and I'll ask you about Steven Kennedy in a moment. But just one more on the Fair Work Commission, I know it's independent and all that, but business wants 2%, union wants 5%. That's well above inflation. At what point do you believe this becomes a problem and it becomes inflationary?

JANE HUME: Well, certainly if the Fair Work decision comes down at a rate that is higher than inflation, inevitably, you know, logically it would push inflation up even further. That would be the worst thing for Australians because we know while we all want more purchasing power, we all want more money in our pockets. If it's going to push up inflation, well, that will simply erode purchasing power in the long term for everybody.

PETE STEFANOVIC: The contradiction here, Jane, though, is that if it's not higher than inflation, then wages are going backwards.

JANE HUME: Well no, they would be, real wages would be steady and of course we all want real wage rises. But the best way to get real wage rises is to bring inflation down, to do everything to bring inflation down. Our concern, of course, is that this Budget was in fact expansionary. That's certainly what economists were saying, which is pushing inflation even further and that's the wrong priorities by this Government, the wrong decisions are being taken. We want to see inflation come back down and hopefully the Fair Work decision today will reflect those priorities.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Okay. On to Steven Kennedy. You just brought him up. He's fronting up to Senate Estimates this morning. What do you want to get him on? How key will his inflation forecasts be, considering he said just last week that higher prices remain on the horizon?

JANE HUME: Yes, that's right and of course, as I said, those inflation forecasts in the Budget were different to the ones that the RBA put out just six days earlier. We want to understand why there is a difference in those two inflation forecasts, what it is in the Budget that's actually going to bring inflation back down, because certainly those first inflation figures that came out just last week were very disappointing, I think for all Australians that are looking for a little bit of relief. Because we know that they're doing it tough right now and unless inflation comes back down, unless there is a concerted effort by Government to prioritise bringing inflation back down, well then all Australians are going to pay a price. Interest rates will simply be higher for longer, because the Reserve Bank won't be able to take its foot off the brake in order to give Australians some relief.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Got to ask you about the former Treasurer, Jane, with potential boundary changes in Victoria. As a senior female in the Liberal Party, especially in Victoria, how do you feel about Josh Frydenberg potentially rerunning for the seat of Kooyong?

JANE HUME: Well, I have to admit I was disappointed to see these boundary changes, draft boundary changes generally. I mean, you know, they are abolishing a seat that has an incumbent woman and also a challenger woman, and that's a real shame. I think, you know, I think the party is going to fight hard to keep the seat of Higgins. It's a really important seat. It's been a seat of Prime Ministers in the past and Katie Allen, who was our candidate there, who is our candidate there I should say is an extraordinarily capable, professional woman with great experience and we should want to keep her there. So that should be the party's priority right now, is fighting to keep the seat of Higgins.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Okay. But has Josh Frydenberg got a better chance than Amelia Hamer to take Kooyong?

JANE HUME: Look, I’ve heard these rumors. I haven't spoken to Josh myself. I think that there might be some Josh Frydenberg fans that got a little bit of a rush of blood to the head when they saw these boundary changes. But you know, quite frankly our focus as a party should be on keeping Higgins right now. We have some extraordinary female candidates, people like Katie Allen, people like Amelia Hamer, Gisele Kapterian in North Sydney, Maggie Forrest in Ryan, Susie Bower in Lyons, these extraordinary women, these professional women, we know are going to be the future of the Liberal Party. We should be doing everything that we can to support them.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Yeah. I mean, but if Josh Frydenberg, if he comes back and I know he's probably, more likely to not run than likely, but if he does come back, then Amelia would have to step aside, would she not? Which would be a problem for the female quota.

JANE HUME: Josh Frydenberg is well loved in our party, and we all, you know, hold him in reverence for being the Treasurer that brought us through Covid. You could only imagine what it would have been like if there were a Labor Government during that period of time. We would still be paying an enormous price for that. Josh has always been a great supporter of women. He has helped me. He's helped people like Sarah Henderson, Jess Wilson in Victoria, and he's campaigning alongside both Katie Allen and Amelia Hamer right now. He knows how important it is to have great women in Parliament too.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Okay, so who would you prefer to run for Kooyong. Josh Frydenberg or Amelia Hamer?

JANE HUME: Well, the party has already preselected Amelia Hamer.

PETE STEFANOVIC (INTERRUPTS): But they could preselect again though, right?

JANE HUME: Well, why would they open the preselections based on draft boundaries alone? You know, draft boundaries change all the time they have done in the past. It would be a crazy thing to do. I know that there's lots of people out there that would love to see Josh's return, but Josh is a great supporter of women in Parliament, always has been, and I know he's doing right by Amelia Hamer. He’s out there campaigning alongside her right now.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Okay, Jane Hume, appreciate it. See you soon.

JANE HUME: Thanks Pete.