Interview with Peter Stefanovic, First Edition

9 September 2024

PETER STEFANOVIC: Well, the fight over who is contributing more to Australia's inflation problem is about to head into another testy week as the RBA and the Federal Treasurer both deny fault. The public has had its say, a Resolve Poll finding 51% of voters believe it's on the Government. The Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume joins us now. Jane, public not buying the spin, it seems.

JANE HUME: Well, it’s certainly something that Coalition has been saying for a long time now Pete. That if the government had concentrated on bringing down inflation using the tools at its disposal from the moment that it came into government, well, the economy would be in a much better place, and interest rates would have not had to stay so high for so long, because inflation has stayed high for so long. Instead, the Government seems to have done everything in its power to bring productivity down rather than increase productivity. Energy prices are still too high because there is enough supply in the market. Industrial Relations system is inflexible, not more flexible, not providing a balance between employees and employers tipping the scales too far one way. We're wrapping up our economy in red tape and green tape, particularly with those mining approvals taking so long. And most importantly, our tax system needs to be lower and simpler and fairer, not increasing burden on taxpayers, which then gets passed on in the form of public spending, 315 billion additional dollars that the government has spent since power, and then crowing that that's what's propping up the economy. That's not an economic plan, that’s a ponzi scheme.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Now that you bring up tax, what's your idea for reform? What will you be taking to the next election?

JANE HUME: Well, we have already announced tax policy to take to the next election. We've said that we would increase the instant asset write off-

PETER STEFANOVIC (interrupts): Right, that's not reform though.

JANE HUME: -for small businesses. It is a very significant reform if you're a small business that wants to invest in their own business, create that productive capacity and making sure that the instant asset write off is a continuing part of the tax system, rather than a one off, a one off offer that gets repeated occasionally. That's really important too, because it allows businesses to manage their tax flows. So that's a really important reform. We've also said that we would repeal the Government's unfair superannuation taxation reforms that it has proposed that are currently languishing in the Senate for good reason. That's an unrealised capital gains tax. That's a brand new tax that we've never had before in Australia. It's never worked anywhere else around the world. So that too is a significant reform, but the Coalition will announce its tax reform policy in due course. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about that from us very soon.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Okay, let's go to aviation. Sounds like Bridget McKenzie wants to break up Qantas and Jetstar. Do you support that?

JANE HUME: Well, you can see the frustration from the Australian public, because, you know, at the moment, there's only two real airlines that are controlling around 93% of the aviation industry. In fact, that was before both Rex and Bonza went bust. What Bridget and the Coalition are calling for the Government to do is to do what the White Paper, the Government's aviation white paper, failed to do, and that's include aviation in the Treasurer's competition review, because it is one of the least competitive sectors. In fact, Treasury's own analysis demonstrated that Qantas puts up its prices when only Jetstar is its competition on a particular route. So you can see why this is important. We want to see the ACCC-

PETER STEFANOVIC (interrupts): So you want to break them up just, just to be clear here, just to be clear here, you would be for breaking them up?

JANE HUME: Just to be very clear, what we want to see is the ACCC to have more powers to understand and address collusion in the industry, and also better understand why there are not more players in the market, more entrants, new interests.

PETER STEFANOVIC: So does that mean Jetstar and Qantas stay together? I'm a little confused here. Does this mean they stay together or not?

JANE HUME: Well the Senate Select Committee, the Senate Select Committee into the airlines that was chaired by Bridget McKenzie. Senator Bridget McKenzie said that the ACCC should have more powers at its disposal, and it should be able to investigate why divestiture might be one of those powers.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Okay, but would, so we would like to see that then. I mean, that sounds like you're you're interfering with the markets here, with market forces.

JANE HUME: I can assure you that what we want to see is more competitive markets, whether it be in superannuation, whether it be that supermarkets, whether it be in airlines. We want to make sure that there is a competitive market out there to give Australians a choice and to bring prices down. Airfares, as we know, have been one of those areas where prices have gone up significantly over the last few years and Australians are paying the price. We already saw that the Government had made decisions to actively favor Qantas by denying Qatar airlines those additional airport slots that artificially inflated airline prices, that artificially inflated ticket prices for Australians at a time when airline prices were going down across the rest of the world.

PETER STEFANOVIC: I’m out of time but Jane, thank you for your time, as always, we'll talk to you again soon.