Interview with Hamish Macdonald, ABC Sydney

19 February 2025

HAMISH MACDONALD: Jane Hume is a Liberal Senator for Victoria, Shadow Minister for Finance. She's with us as well this morning. Good morning to you, Jane Hume

JANE HUME: Good morning Hamish. Good to be with you and now I'm on my toes.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Well, I hope you're always on your toes when you're talking to the media. Jane, is there any excuse for banks delaying the delivery of this interest rate cut? I know that most of them have said they will, but we're hearing this morning from all sorts of different people about the banks saying, well, you know, maybe the end of this month, maybe the start of next month. When's appropriate in your mind?

JANE HUME: The Coalition have been consistent by saying that we want to see the banks pass the interest rate cut on in full. We also want to make sure that the interest rate cut for borrowers is passed on at the same time as the interest rate cut for depositors as well. You know, often we find that deposit accounts see that interest rate cut immediately, but the borrowers don't see it, you know, have that delayed so that wouldn't be fair. We'd like to see it passed on immediately.

HAMISH MACDONALD: What would you do to improve interest rates if you're elected? Obviously it's the decision of the Reserve Bank but you've been critical of this government, uh, for their role in sort of broader spending in the economy and the way that puts pressure on the Reserve Bank when it's making these decisions. What would you do any different?

JANE HUME: Yeah, that's right. Hamish. I mean, we've said that interest rates have been too high for too long because inflation has been too high for too long, and that the Government has made decisions that has kept inflation higher, and that has kept interest rates higher. So we want to make sure that, uh, you know, you manage the economy in such a way that inflation comes back down. We feel that the Government…

HAMISH MACDONALD: But how would you do that? That's the question.

JANE HUME: The Government has spent an additional $347 billion over the last three years. That's meant inflation has stayed higher for longer. That includes things like an additional 36,000 public servants, for instance, which, you know.

HAMISH MACDONALD: So you'd get rid of, you'd get rid of them, would you?

JANE HUME: Well, that's a one fifth increase, a 20% increase in the size of the public servants. So that…

HAMISH MACDONALD: I understand.

JANE HUME: …is going to increase public sector spending. Now, Michele Bullock

HAMISH MACDONALD: Senator, this is a question about what you would do in office. Would you get rid of those positions?

JANE HUME: Well, we certainly wouldn't have a bloated public service that keeps…

HAMISH MACDONALD: So how many jobs…

JANE HUME: inflation higher for longer.

HAMISH MACDONALD: So how many jobs would you remove from the public service?

JANE HUME: Well, we will be announcing our policies on the public service in the lead up to the election. But I think we can be very clear that if those public services are not delivering on the expectations of Australians, well, then certainly they need to be rethought. And let's face it, I don't think that there's too many Australians out there that feel 20% better served by a 20% increase in the size of the public service. In fact, we've seen wait times for things like accessing the low income card or accessing the aged pension blow out, not come back. So we'd also make sure that we weren't wasting taxpayer money on things like, you know, everything from a $450 million referendum that you knew was going to fail right through to a $620,000 on a speechwriter For a minister to sound more empathetic, there's an awful lot of government waste out there. And if you want a list of what we absolutely wouldn't do, you can go to. www.underlabor.com.au that is a list of government waste that we have identified. We feel that these this is a wrong approach. It's actually making the Reserve Bank's job harder. So by reining in that wasteful spending, and also by doing things like supporting small business and fixing the energy system so that energy prices are cheaper, will reduce that pressure on inflation, yes, the pressure on interest rates, so Australians get a chance to get ahead.

HAMISH MACDONALD: How would you make energy prices cheaper? Because your plans for nuclear energy are very expensive.

JANE HUME: Well, in fact, that the plan to have a nuclear as part of the energy mix, as part of the grid, is a cheaper option according to frontier economics, which is an independent organisation, then Labor's renewables only approach. What the most important thing we can do is put more supply into the system. I mean, it's basic economics…

HAMISH MACDONALD: Are you going to release?

JANE HUME: You put more supply into the system…

HAMISH MACDONALD: Are you're going to release the workings of that, that work that Frontier Economics did?

JANE HUME: Well, that's up to Frontier Economics, but I'm pretty sure that it is already made public. There is a very large report from Frontier Economics into both the Coalition's plan and the Labor Government's plan that’s publicly available.

HAMISH MACDONALD: There's a bunch of assumptions right, which are contested.

JANE HUME: Well, they’re AEMO’s assumptions. I actually haven’t heard the Labor Government contest any of the assumptions that are in those reports.

HAMISH MACDONALD: The Labor Government says that you have not outlined what you would do. And in fact, we heard this from the Treasurer earlier this morning to fund, they say $600 billion would be the cost of delivering nuclear over time. And that you haven't said what you'd cut to do it.

JANE HUME: Well, in fact, the costs that Frontier Economics have put out there is the cost of the entire energy system, the energy mix, not just nuclear. And that's what's important to compare apples with apples. You can't simply just take one part of the energy mix and say, well, that's going to cost more. The aim of the game is to have an all technologies approach make sure that the energy grid is stable and sustainable. So it's not just about getting emissions down, which, of course, is important, but making sure that the grid is sustainable too, and bringing costs down as well. Now to do that, you've got to put more supply into the system in the short term. That's gas. So we've said that we will fast track approvals for gas. for gas to make sure that we can bring prices down immediately.

HAMISH MACDONALD: We do have to get to the news, Senator Jane Hume thank you very much indeed.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you, Hamish.