Interview with Peter Stefanovic, First Edition

27 January 2025

PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us live now the Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume, Jane, there's a Newspoll every week that's just in time for our chats thankfully. What's your response to this latest one?

JANE HUME: Pete, it will be no surprise if I say to you that the only poll that matters is the one on election day. But that said, it's becoming increasingly clear that Australians can't afford another three years of Labor, and they're beginning to speak up and say so. They've seen the largest collapse of their living standards on record. They've seen through the broken promises and wrong priorities of Labor who promised them cheaper energy prices and have failed to deliver, who promised them an improvement of their standard of living, and in fact, it went backwards. They promised to tackle the cost of living, and it's increased. They promised more affordable homes, and yet we've seen a lack of housing supply that's kept the price of housing too high for so many Australians, and they certainly haven't delivered on safer communities, as we've seen a rise of anti-Semitism around the country. The Albanese Government has been profoundly disappointing for so many Australians, and that's beginning to play out in those polls that said the coalition will be focused on delivering the policies and the solutions that are important to ordinary Australians. We're focused on our job right now, not what's being reported on a day well.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Just on the economics of it all. And just to take the other argument, though, inflation is down, unemployment is low, wages are tracking upwards above inflation. Yes, folks are struggling at the moment. The Government doesn't deny that. But what else could it have done?

JANE HUME: Inflation is still too high and has been too high for too long, it could have come down so much earlier as it has in other countries, and that would have seen a lowering of interest rates earlier than this as well. Instead, because interest rates have stayed too high for too long, inflation stayed too high for too long, people have seen a collapse of their living standards by 7.8%. That's the fastest and deepest collapse of people's living standards in Australia on record on this government's watch. At the same time, unemployment is actually higher now than it was at the last election. These are the things that people will be holding the Albanese Government to account for as they've seen their living standards go backwards, as they've seen the quality of their lives go backwards, we cannot afford another three years of Labor.

PETER STEFANOVIC: But they say things would be worse now if you were in power, and the Treasurer has put a dollar figure on that this morning, he says dual income families would be $7,200 worse off without the Government's cost of living measures, which he claims were largely opposed by your team. What's your reaction to that?

JANE HUME: Wouldn't it be terrific if Dr Spin Jim Chalmers concentrated on doing his job, improving the economy, which is economic growth has flatlined, increasing productivity, which has gone backwards in this country and lowering inflation, which has stayed too high for too long. Instead, Dr Spin Jim has charged the public service with doing a politicised analysis on nonsense numbers. I think maybe Jim Chalmers is feeling a little bit defensive about his poor record.

PETER STEFANOVIC: What do you mean by non making stuff up.

JANE HUME: Well, on what basis could you possibly do an analysis that says this is what the Coalition would have done. We weren't in government. They were in government. Instead, if the Coalition had been in government, we would have seen more energy supply into the system, and that would have lowered energy prices. We would have seen removal of the CFMEU from construction sites, which would have reduced the, you know, the cost of building, the cost of construction, and that would have made life cheaper for Australia. I mean, this is just, it's nonsense numbers that Jim is putting out there, and instead, maybe he should be concentrating on his job, which is improving the economy for all Australians. This is not his job, although he seems to be very good at the spin rather than the economy.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Well, I mean, then there's the strong allegation at the moment that you'll be making cuts to Medicare, housing and pensions. Will you be?

JANE HUME: Are you reading the Labor talking points Pete?

PETER STEFANOVIC: These are charges that are being made and like, I'm just I'm putting them to you.

JANE HUME: By whom? They're being, I think they're being made by Labor. They're not being made by the Coalition.

PETER STEFANOVIC: So what's your reaction to them? That's what I'm asking.

JANE HUME: Well, the Coalition is going to deliver a stronger economy. We're going to cut the government waste, and don't think for a second there isn't government waste out there. We're going to deliver quality health care to ordinary Australians, affordable homes. Reduce prices of energy by increasing supply, and will reduce inflation by making sure we cut that government waste, get rid of the red tape and give Australians what it is that they expect and deserve, which is consistently lower inflation and lower interest rates, to have the chance…

PETER STEFANOVIC (interrupts): No cuts to Medicare?

JANE HUME: to get ahead. No cuts to Medicare, no, no cuts to Medicare. We have, we have always said that we would not cut essential services. But if you don't think that there's government waste out there, well, you're not looking very hard. How about 36,000 new public servants, a 20% increase in the public service? I don't know about you Pete, do you feel 20% better served? It's kind of crazy, the amount of money.

PETER STEFANOVIC: So what's just Jacinta Price going to do?

JANE HUME: …$47 billion. Well, that's going to be a great question, because, you know, I'm absolutely thrilled to have this new cohort of extraordinarily talented people join our shadow cabinet and shadow ministry rank. Somebody like Jacinta Price is, she's such a warrior for the cause, she'll be doing a forensic analysis of government waste and spending and making sure that there is an opportunity to create an efficient government, because that's what Australians expect and deserve. An efficient and reliable government that delivers value for the taxpayer. That's not what we're getting now.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Just a final one from Poland. Mark Dreyfus has said this morning, the politicisation of anti-Semitism is grotesque. Do you have a response to that?

JANE HUME: Anti-Semitism is grotesque Pete, and we've seen 15 months here in Australia, where anti-Semitism has been on the rise. Where has Mark Dreyfus been all this time? He's been part of a government that has overseen the greatest rise in anti-Semitism that this country has ever seen. Anthony Albanese needs to be held account for the fact that this has happened under his watch, and his response has been weak. He's been dragged kicking and screaming to a national cabinet which came out with a solution of more data collection. This is unacceptable when we have a Jewish community in Australia that is feeling personally threatened, that they're feeling unsafe in their own communities. This has happened under Anthony Albanese's watch. For Mark Dreyfus to come out 15 months later and say that the problem is the politicisation is nonsense. He did say one thing, that anti-Semitism shouldn't be an issue of left and right. That's exactly right. And had the left dealt with this problem earlier on, had it dealt with it appropriately now, it wouldn't be a problem at all in Australia.

PETER STEFANOVIC: All right, we'll leave it there. We're out of time. Jane here, thanks as always, for your time. We'll chat again soon.