Interview with Thomas Oriti, ABC NewsRadio

17 May 2024

THOMAS ORITI: Thanks for spending your Friday morning with us. Supporting nuclear power and reducing immigration were two core themes of last night's Budget reply speech from the Opposition Leader. Peter Dutton says lowering the amount of migrants is needed to address cost of living pressures in the years ahead. Given the overseas arrivals are putting pressure on the housing market. His reply speech also reaffirmed the Coalition support for nuclear power and promises to work with the States and Territories on tougher bail laws. To understand a bit more about this, we're joined now by Liberal Senator Jane Hume, who's also the Shadow Minister for Finance. Senator, good morning, thank you for your time.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you Tom.

THOMAS ORITI: Can I ask you firstly, and I know that Angus Taylor has been asked about this a bit in recent days - but firstly, will you support the Government's cost of living relief measures that were revealed on Tuesday night in the Budget?

JANE HUME: Well, Tom, most importantly, the reason why cost of living relief measures are needed in the Budget are because of the failed policies and the wrong priorities of this Labor Government. This is a problem of their own making. But unfortunately, the cost of living relief that they're offering is really nothing more than a band-aid on a bullet hole. The only way to sustainably bring down the cost of living is to tackle inflation, and the only way to tackle inflation is to make sure that your fiscal policy, the things you do in your budget, are aligned with monetary policy. Otherwise, the Reserve Bank has to do all the heavy lifting, and the best way to do that is to rein in those spending ambitions and we know that Labor has spending ambitions, they've actually lifted spending by an additional $315 billion since coming to Government.

THOMAS ORITI: No doubt. Sorry to interrupt. But no doubt, yes, whatever the RBA does could be seen as a crucial test of Jim Chalmers and his Budget here, but just back to my question, will you support the cost of living relief measures in the Budget?

JANE HUME: We're not going to stand in the way of energy bill relief for Australians that are doing it tough. Would this have been the way that we would have done it? No…[interrupted]

THOMAS ORITI (INTERRUPTS): It sounds like you're saying you wouldn't have provided that relief, because you're urging restraint, you wouldn't have actually provided relief for cost of living in the Budget?

JANE HUME: Well, we wouldn't have done that this way. However, this is the way that the government has chosen to do it, they have the numbers to get it through the Parliament and we won't stand in the way of those thousands of Australian households that are doing it really tough right now. I am also the Chair of the Cost of Living Committee. I've been travelling around the country and energy bill pressure, energy bill hardship and financial hardship because of energy debt are the recurring themes that we're hearing in that Cost of Living Committee from hundreds of signatures.

THOMAS ORITI: Yeah, and everyone's about to get $300 towards it. So surely you'd welcome that?

JANE HUME: Well, that $300 will go some of the way to making up for the incredibly high energy bills that we've seen in the last two years. In fact, in order to make up for what's been lost in some of the energy bills, there would be some households that would need energy relief of up to $1,000 and of course, the Government isn't providing that. Let's not forget

THOMAS ORITI (INTERRUPTS): But neither would you. Neither would you in the Budget, if you were urging restraint.

JANE HUME: Tom, let's not forget that this Government came to power promising $275 relief on their energy bills, that power prices would go down. That commitment that they made prior to the election was completely dismissed.

THOMAS ORITI: But everyone's about $300. Everyone's about to get $300. That's more than $275.

JANE HUME: Tom, that's a subsidy, a taxpayer funded subsidy that is band-aid on a bullet hole, because of a problem that has occurred under Labor. They have failed to control our energy price growth by injecting more supply into the system. Instead, they've moved on an ideological path that is costing Australians more every time they pay their energy bill.

THOMAS ORITI: I'd love to discuss that with you more. But there's a huge list of things. I want to get through to you. So one is I just want to talk about the migration issue right and Peter Dutton seems to link immigration, foreign ownership to the rising cost of living in housing. Your party wants to reduce annual permanent migration from 195,000 to 140,000. How did you arrive at that figure?

JANE HUME: Well, indeed, it wasn't necessarily just the Coalition that has linked rising migration figures to the housing crisis. The RBA has done the same and our concern, of course, is that homeownership is becoming increasingly out of reach. There's a generation of Australians now that never think that they will be able to own their own home. But it's not just owning your own home, even finding somewhere to rent is becoming near impossible and in the middle of this housing crisis, Labor is bringing in a record number of migrants. There are 1.67 million migrants over five years. But on the data that we've seen, it's only actually managed to build around 265,000 homes. Now where is everybody going to live? Don't misunderstand me or Peter here. We celebrate the contribution of migrants in Australia. They are an incredible part of the rich tapestry of our history and our future. But the program must be well managed ,and under this Prime Minister, that great Australian dream of homeownership has, it’s a nightmare for many, many people. So that's why we are going to alleviate the pressure.

THOMAS ORITI: Peter Dutton made that clear as well last night, yes, you know, acknowledging how important they are to our societal fabric, no question. But what about plans to build more homes? I mean, with due respect, it seems like the Coalition's policy is just to add to the, you know, the brain drain and a skills shortage to try and solve the crisis that doesn't really set us up too well for the future either, does it?

JANE HUME: Well, no, actually, we have also said that we would change the visa status for those that have the skills in construction to bring them here and that's really important, because we are now short of the construction workers to build those new homes. So that is also part of the program as well as reducing that pressure by reducing the permanent migration take, temporarily from 195 thousand to 140 for the next two years and then up to 150 and 160,000 in the years after.

THOMAS ORITI: Is that a long term solution, though? I mean, cutting migration in the immediate term for a couple of years to solve the housing crisis, that'll still lead to a skills drain down the line. Peter Dutton did suggest last night and on 7.30, there'd be a cut to the skilled visas program. I mean, that doesn't sound like long term thinking with due respect.

JANE HUME: Well, it's about taking the immediate pressure off the housing market and I think if you're, if you're one of those people that is trying to find a property to rent, it ends up in an enormous queue on a Saturday morning to inspect a property and get your name down there, you'll appreciate the fact that there are fewer people in that queue. We also want to make sure as I said that there are more construction workers in Australia. So yes, there are changes to the visa system, but they will encourage more workers that will help us build those homes. There's also a two year ban on foreign residents purchasing existing homes, again, it's just about releasing that pressure valve on the market. Now there's more that we can do. We know that there's more that we can do, but this is a very good start.

THOMAS ORITI: Okay, now I know you've got a dash in a bit. So I just want to ask you about nuclear power. Why is the Coalition now pushing for nuclear?

JANE HUME: Well, we are the only advanced economy that doesn't have nuclear in its mix, or in its sights of its mix and yet we can see in other countries that have included nuclear, as a supportive, as a supportive energy source to renewables, not to replace renewables but as a supportive energy source to renewables, that power prices have come down. We have the richest sources of uranium in the world. This moratorium on nuclear energy in Australia is really little more than ideological belligerence.

THOMAS ORITI: No details from the Coalition on the policy to position nuclear reactors that you know, as yet unnamed, old mine sites? I mean, when will voters get more detail about this idea? How much will it cost? When would it be delivered? Where would the power plants be located? Your analysis suggests that it could be done within a decade. It seems like a whole lot of experts, including the CSIRO say 20 years, why do you think that you could do it differently? There's a lot we don't know about this plan.

JANE HUME: You've asked an awful lot of questions.

THOMAS ORITI: Sorry, I just, in the short time we've got. Let me put it down to one question, forgive me, when are we going to get more detail about this? There's not a lot there.

JANE HUME: Before the election you will receive all the detail of our nuclear energy policy to support the long term sustainability of our electricity grid and make sure that we have affordable and reliable energy in the future, that is emissions free. That's what we all want. That's what nuclear will deliver in the long term.

THOMAS ORITI: Okay, I know you've got a dash. So thank you very much for giving us the time this morning Senator.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you Tom.