Interview with Peter Stefanovic, First Edition

30 September 2024

PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us live now, Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Jane, it'll be a $16 billion surplus, which is a $6 billion improvement. So the Treasurer is going to say today, this is proof of economic management. That'll be the line. What's the fine print? Your response here?

JANE HUME: Pete, we'll wait to see the numbers in the Final Budget Outcome when they're released today, but I think Australians will know that Jim Chalmers is delivering a surplus not on the back of his hard work of fiscal management, but on the back of the hard work of ordinary Australians and a bit of dumb luck. Let's face it, commodity prices have been higher than those budget forecasts throughout the entire budget year. And of course, because of rising inflation and bracket creep, there is a higher tax take from ordinary Australians too, who found themselves in higher and higher tax brackets and therefore paying more and more tax. The hard work, the hard decisions, haven't been done by Jim Chalmers. In fact, he hasn't made any real scratch the surface of the structural budget deficit that we're facing. And in fact, we're facing a much higher budget deficit in the next financial year, and higher again after that, which is demonstration that the hard work hasn't really been done to improve the structural bottom line.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Okay, so no credit where it's due here.

JANE HUME: Well, we'll wait and see the Final Budget Outcome, but at this stage, it looks like those surpluses that Jim Chalmers have been delivered, have been delivered not by his hard work, but by your hard work, by the hard work of ordinary Australians and that’s not good enough.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Right, I mean, this is something that you weren't, you weren't able to achieve when you're in power?

JANE HUME: Well, now I think that that's highly unfair, but I'll allow you, as Jim points to the Covid years where we had to make those temporary and targeted measures in order to keep the economy afloat. Jim Chalmers inherited a strong economy with high, low levels of unemployment, and in fact, we've seen a deteriorating position since then. Debt has increased by around $50 billion just in the last couple of years alone. Spending has increased. And even though we've had that windfall gain, the structural saves haven't been made. There's been $4 in spending for every $1 in savings. That's not how you create a budget, a balanced budget over the long term.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Yeah, okay, so you just referred to this. So iron ore exports, they're about to plunge because of China's worsening conditions. So if you were to win the next election, that's something you will inherit as well. How would you turn that around?

JANE HUME: Yeah, that's a really big issue, you're right. This year we'll see commodity prices go down, and yet we haven't been able to build that resilience into the budget bottom line to be able to cope with that. That's on Labor. That's why we're going to be seeing a $28 billion surplus next year and $43 billion in the year after that. That will be one of the biggest budget, budget deficits I should say, one of the biggest budget deficits that's ever been delivered, and that's because the hard work hasn't been done to make those structural saves.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Okay, just on another matter today, Jane, public submissions to close on the Government's Misinformation Bill. Why are you so opposed to it?

JANE HUME: This Bill is a bad bill, and it was a bad bill from the start. This is the second time Labor have had a go at this, and they failed dismally with the first round. There were 24,000 public submissions against that first Bill. Amazingly, for this Bill, they only gave one week for submissions to be made. There are three things that I think are very wrong with this Bill, that the Coalition think are very wrong with this Bill. The first is that the social media companies have unprecedented powers to decide what is misinformation. Of course, they won't be punished if they take down too much, but they will be punished if they leave up too much. So there is an incentive, if you like, to censor public opinion. The second issue is that there creates two tiers of public opinion. If you're an academic, you can say whatever you want, and that won't be misinformation. But if you disagree with an academic, if you're an ordinary Australian, and you disagree with an academic, for instance, well that could be considered misinformation. And finally, there is unprecedented levels of power that have been bestowed upon the minister. That's something we feel very uncomfortable with. The Coalition will always stand up for free speech. This Bill fails to do.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Yeah, and you're not alone on that. I mean this was originally Scott Morrison's idea, though. So what's changed since then? Where has it gone wrong?

JANE HUME: I think Labor just have a tendency to want to control the narrative at all steps of the way. And you know, the demonstration of this is the unbelievable control, the power that had been bestowed upon a minister. The Coalition will deliver its own policy, prior to the election, but our priority right now, must be defeating this very bad bill.

PETER STEFANOVIC: All right, Jane Hume thanks for your time. We'll keep a lookout for that one it arrives.