Interview with Gary Adshead, ABC Perth Drive

25 March 2025

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, let's break down some of it right now and go straight to the Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume, who joins us on the line. Hi Jane.

JANE HUME: Good to be with you Gary.

GARY ADSHEAD: Thanks for joining us. Okay, what will you match as a opposition? What are you prepared to look at matching?

JANE HUME: Well, can I first say that this budget was clearly aimed not at the next five years, but the next five weeks, and that the offering, the centrepiece of the Budget, this is really a cruel hoax. Because let's face it, 70 cents a day that doesn't kick in for another 15 months is not even going to touch the sides of what most Australians have lost in their standard of living over the last three years. Just to put it into perspective, a family with a mortgage is probably around $50,000 worth off under this government. That money is gone. They've paid that interest in increased interest repayments and Labor's answer to that is to have them 70 cents a day. I mean, that's not responsible. And let's face it, it costs $17 billion to do this. It's absolutely eye watering.

GARY ADSHEAD: Then I suppose maybe the question is, in Are you going to match it? Are you going to better it in the budget reply speech?

JANE HUME: Well, I'm not going. That's a very career limiting move to announce policies on behalf of your boss before the budget reply…

GARY ADSHEAD: Oh go on.

JANE HUME: So I certainly will not be doing that. But what I will say is that on Thursday night, you will hear a genuine plan to restore our lost standard of living that we've lost under Labor. This is a real concern that we've lost our ability to effectively manage the economy. We've got red ink. As far as the eye can see, we're spending more than we are making, and debt has now officially hit that trillion dollar mark. That is something that all Australians should be concerned about. So we'll make sure that we restore our lost standard of living in a sustainable way, bring inflation down, get the cost of living under control. We'll deliver affordable and reliable energy, which is profoundly important to all Australian families and businesses as well. And we'll make sure that we deliver affordable homes and get Australians into their first home as well as, let's face it, in these very turbulent times that we restore security to our country as well.

GARY ADSHEAD: But on the tax cut side of it, because everyone's going to go, ‘Oh, good, some tax cuts coming up in 26-27’ even people that really don't need them in terms of affordability. But it sounds like if you're saying that they're a cruel hoax and they're poll free and they just don't really sort of cut the mustard, then you're going to have to go with greater tax cuts, aren't you?

JANE HUME: Well, this really isn't the right time for significant tax reform. And let's face it, this is not tax reform that Labor is offering. They're offering an election sweetener. That's all this is. And you know, the Coalition has always been a party that is dedicated to lower and simpler and fairer taxes. We know that reform is needed because bracket creep has now become insidious in our taxation system. Our concern, of course, is that $17 billion of spending. We're not actually getting any genuine reform here. Now, we have actually announced some changes to the taxation system already. We've said we'll raise the instant asset write off threshold to $30,000 for small businesses, so that they can invest in productive assets and productive in capacity. And we've also announced that we would oppose Labor's unworkable, and let's face it, unfair tax on unrealised capital gains in superannuation, which is just such a terrible, terrible policy. But we've also said, and we've also said that we'll allow small businesses to not have FBT and to deduct the cost of meals that they could take the staff or clients out to so to put them on an even playing field with large businesses, but most importantly, to help our hospitality sector, which has been at the pointy end of Australia's cost of living crisis, they've really suffered. So many of our hospitality businesses have gone out of business, along with 29,000 businesses under Labor. So that's a really important sector to help. But these personal income tax cuts aren't really going to touch the sides for anybody. Let's face it, 73 cents a day isn't even going to buy you a cup of coffee.

GARY ADSHEAD: No, not even close. Now Jane Hume, I'm talking to here, the shadow finance spokesperson for the Coalition. What about the abolition, and I didn't see this one coming either, the abolition of non-compete clauses. How big a problem is that?

JANE HUME: Well, this is an interesting one. I have to admit, I hadn't. I didn't see this one coming either. But what worries me is that it has been essentially held up as the only productivity measure in this budget. Now we know that productivity has gone backwards in this country, and that we cannot have economic growth unless we improve productivity. If this is Labor's only idea to improve productivity, well, we're all going to hell in a handbasket. Where is the genuine changes to industrial relations to remove that, you know, that burdensome red tape on businesses, large and small, where is the changes to our energy mix to make sure that we bring down energy prices? So that wasn't so the businesses aren't suffering from, from, from that rising cost of living. Where is the changes to business tax to help businesses get by? Because that's the only way we're going to change the productivity in this country, is to start removing the shackles from business. And this doesn't really do that. It simply works for employees, not employers.

GARY ADSHEAD: What about the HECS debt? There'll be 3 million Australians who go ‘yeah, if you want to take 20% off my debt that I still owe, be more than happy for you to do that’. Will you back that one in?

JANE HUME: No, we've said that we will oppose that measure, because, let's face it, it is only directed to a small number of students that have either what about those ones that have just paid off their debts that don't get it? What about the next generation of students? Again, the best way to get HECS debt down is to stop inflation. And this is our concern, the inflation genie is still well out of the bottle. And while we're in very uncertain, a very uncertain global environment, there is a real chance that it could come back and, you know, rear its ugly head again. The best way to get HECS debt down is because let's face it, HECS is an interest free loan, but it is indexed. So the best way to get it down is to make sure inflation is down. When inflation was low, no one was talking about their HECS debts. It's only when inflation was allowed to run out of control under Labor that HECS debts started being a problem.

GARY ADSHEAD: Just on the inflation, I see that the Treasury forecast is that it could be back next year to 3% what is that going to say to the Reserve Bank?

JANE HUME: Yeah, well, you can see that it's actually gone up. That forecast has gone up. It was at two and a quarter percent, and now it's at 3% that's a real concern. That is probably, you know, Treasury, there's no way they can hide it once energy subsidies come off well, that artificial control of headline inflation is released. And more importantly, now, if there is going to be a tax cut, albeit a very small one for individuals, an enormous one for the budget? Well, then that's also going to have an effect on inflation too. So that would be why Treasury has rejigged its forecast. That should be a concern for all Australians, because, of course, when inflation gets higher, interest rates stay higher for longer. And so many Australians have suffered under the, there's been 12 interest rate rises under this government, and I might add all 12 of them took place while Anthony Albanese was out campaigning for the Voice. So this is a real concern for Australians, who you know, are now really suffering. There's a lot of housing stress out there now.

GARY ADSHEAD: Now, just finally, one of the things that I think people will be looking for in the budget reply speech is definitely around electricity costs. And this is something that's definitely more on the Eastern Seaboard than here, that it's an issue and doesn't go away. There's a rebate, another rebate $150 which will cost up $1.8 billion to bring some energy bill relief. How will the Coalition bring down the price of electricity?

JANE HUME: Well, it's really important that first and foremost, we bring more gas into our system, because let's face it, if you bring in more supply of energy, well, then you bring prices down. So we have said that we will fast track approvals for gas, and we will do that as a matter of urgency on returning to government to bring prices down now in the long term, obviously, we've said we will replace retiring coal fired power stations with clean, zero emissions nuclear energy, and that will bring down prices in the longer term, as it has right around the world in all of those countries that have adopted nuclear power as part of their energy mix. So renewables will stay and there will be more renewables, but more importantly, there will be more gas. And in the longer term, clean zero emissions, nuclear energy as well.

GARY ADSHEAD: Just finally on the gas question, then, I mean, have you already been having talks with the gas producers? Because we all know that preordained and prearranged state agreements that are with those companies that can't just be ripped up and started again. Well, I'm being told they can't. Have you had those discussions that would enable you to start insisting that they have a bigger gas reservation policy in this country.

GARY ADSHEAD: Well, we've maintained communication with the gas companies throughout this term of government, because, let's face it, they've been massively over regulated by Labor, and have come to us to talk to us about that. Under a Coalition government, the previous Coalition government, we dealt with the tax with the gas companies to make sure that there were adequate domestics, that there was adequate domestic supply, and that's why gas prices went down under a Coalition. We will, we'll certainly seek to do that again. That would be a priority for this government to bring more gas into the system, into our domestic system, so that we can bring prices down.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right. Thank you very much for your time. Jane Hume, appreciate it.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you, Gary.

GARY ADSHEAD: Jane Hume, the Shadow Finance spokesperson on behalf of the Coalition there, and of course, there's more to come tomorrow.