Interview with Paul Murray, Paul Murray Live

6 October 2022

PAUL MURRAY: Jane Hume is the Shadow Finance Minister and she is a very good egg. She is all in on doing something about the cost of living crisis. So she is going to establish a Senate inquiry to go around the country and actually get some answers. Lovely to see you, Senator. What are you going to try and find?

JANE HUME: It's great to be with you, Paul. Every survey says that cost of living is the number one issue for Australians right now, but Labor does not have a plan to deal with it. Well, we're here to help Labor develop that plan by putting together this cost of living committee that will allow us to go right around the country and get to the nub of the problem, understand what the real pressure points are, and develop some policies that can be put in place to assist people with cost of living with the cost of living crisis we're facing right now, without adding to those inflationary pressures. That's the objective of this committee. We want to be constructive. We want to help labor develop a plan because if you don't have a plan, if you plan to fail, and the cost of failure right now is just way too great. 

PAUL MURRAY: But literally 88% of Australians are concerned about this. Yet it's bugger all question time. It's very little interviews. It's very little follow up and zero expectation out of a budget that's coming up. And there's a pay rise to public servants. 

JANE HUME: And then on top of that, they're now talking about dumping the Stage Three tax cuts. I can't imagine a worse time to make dump tax cuts than during a cost of living crisis. We know why this is so though, because tax cuts simply are not in Labor's DNA. At their heart, they think that governments spend your money better than you do. But tax cuts aren't, you know, a generous gift from some sort of benevolent overlord. It's your money, and it's yours that they take away. Now, these stage three tax cuts are so important, they merge two tax brackets together. They raise the threshold so that more taxpayers are caught within it. And they lower the tax rate to 30 cents on the dollar. So 95% of taxpayers receive a benefit. It's so important that we get these through. Labor are looking for every excuse. They're flying every kite, floating every balloon. They're saying that you know the UK have scrapped their tax cuts, so we should do the same. That's not the same. You know, in the UK, they actually scrapped the top marginal tax rate. We've never done that. These tax cuts have been in place since 2018. And they make the tax system much simpler, much fairer and better for all Australians much more effective for Australians. 

PAUL MURRAY: Good on you, thank you Senator. I know it was a quick one, but I really do appreciate it. The cost of living committee, she's put it in place. Jane Hume’s a good egg, she fights for the right stuff.