Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda
15 May 2024
LAURA JAYES: Jane, good to see you. What do you like in this Budget, anything?
JANE HUME: Well, I've got to say I think I feel like a lot of Australians. This was a missed opportunity that after two years of Labor, Australians now realise that they are poorer under this Government and this Budget was an opportunity to fix that, and I don't think anybody's got any new hope that it seems like interest rate drops are still a long way off on the horizon. So there are some things we like there is no doubt about that. There is some money set aside for Crisis Accommodation, fleeing domestic violence. There's an extension of a program that we put in place in a Coalition that wraparound services around domestic violence we do like that. Also, we like instant asset write off, we really do feel that small businesses need us to help right now. We're very pleased that that has been extended, the problem is it really isn’t enough, it's only back at the level that we saw prior to the pandemic and businesses, small businesses in particular, need a helping hand right now. The Cost of Living Committee that I chair has heard from dozens, even hundreds of them right across the country, and they are really struggling, whether it be energy prices or rent, the cost of materials, the cost of transport, all of that is pushing prices up, but they're feeling like that they have to cut their margins just to keep customers coming to the door.
LAURA JAYES: What about the energy relief, $300 for every single household, I mean, if Labor, if I could perhaps pre-empt what you might say here is why are rich households getting it? If Labor went down the means-testing path, you'd be sitting here accusing them of class warfare?
JANE HUME: Well, they went down the means-testing path with the last round of energy relief, so I'm still scratching my head as to why they couldn't do that.
LAURA JAYES (INTERRUPTS): Because economy wide, it has a bigger disinflationary effect, doesn’t it?
JANE HUME: Well, I think that that might be the objective, maybe that, or it's more appealing for your reelection prospects. But it does seem very strange that somebody would say, for instance, what if I've got a holiday home? Do I get two lots of energy relief? I don't think anybody has considered that. Does that mean a household gets $600 rather than $300?
LAURA JAYES: Yeah you do, but there's always going to be these things at the fringe. Just like people saying today that Gina Rinehart is also going to get $300 off her power bill. I mean, this is our money.
JANE HUME: Well, there's no way we're going to stand in between Australians who are really doing it tough, getting some energy bill relief.
LAURA JAYES: So you'll grumble about it now, but pass it through anyway?
JANE HUME: Well, it wouldn't have been the way that we would have done it. That's certainly the case. But I do think that Australians are crying out for help and we won't stand in the way of that happening. But let's face it, it's a band-aid on a bullet hole. Australians have gone backwards. They've seen their real disposable income drop by around seven and a half percent. Now if you're a family with a mortgage, you've probably paid about $35,000 more on that mortgage just in the last couple of years than you would have two years ago. So these families are really doing it tough and as I said, at the Cost of Living Committee we've seen people come to us, to speak to us, speak to the committee, that have told us that they're lining up outside food banks, they might be people that have two incomes in a family, there might be people that have mortgages, and they're crying out for help with food relief. Now that's outrageous. So I know that what I'm going to do with my energy bill relief when my $300 comes through, that will be donated directly to FoodBank, because we know that for every $1 that's donated to FoodBank, they can create two meals. So that's six hundred meals that I've created with my energy relief.
LAURA JAYES: If you're talking about this being perhaps a pre-election Budget, that means as the opposition would now be getting its ducks in a row shortly. We've also seen in this Budget that bracket creep, for the first time the Treasurer has really laid it out, about how much bracket creep on income taxes goes into benefits and Government budgets. I mean, that damages the economy, we know that. But it benefits Government budgets. Your original stage three tax cuts were designed to tackle bracket creep in a way and it was at the higher end and that's where all the damage is done essentially. Well, you re-look at that?
JANE HUME: So let me first say that yes, the opposition is getting its ducks in a row but we've been doing that from day one of opposition. In fact, you'll recall that we announced our first policy in opposition, about six weeks into opposition, which was about allowing pensioners to work a little longer and work an extra day without losing any of their pension. So we've been getting our policy agenda together since, from day one. On tax cuts, we have committed to lower and simpler and fairer taxes. Understand though, that stage three tax cuts as they stood have been trashed. They've been completely trashed.
LAURA JAYES: But you’ve got an opportunity now?
JANE HUME: That’s right, but that was genuine reform, that was costed and funded within the Budget.
LAURA JAYES: Yeah, and stage one and two that we've already seen passed.
JANE HUME: It was costed, it was done. This Government has proved they've got no appetite for tax reform. So we will go to the Budget, so we will go to the election, with a personal income tax policy that delivers lower simpler, fairer taxes. Love to announce what it is today, but I won’t be doing that.
LAURA JAYES: Give us a hint please?
JANE HUME: I'd love to, maybe one day, but no.
LAURA JAYES: But will it tackle bracket creep?
JANE HUME: What we want to do is to tackle bracket creep. In fact, that's what the original stage three did, it got rid of one of those, a whole tax bracket had disappeared. That was fantastic because inflation is the ultimate thief in the night. It erodes your purchasing power. It eats away at your savings, it. If anything, Jim Chalmers should know that it isn’t from his hard work that he has delivered a surplus, it’s from the hard work of other Australians.
LAURA JAYES: There it is Jane, my favourite chart in the Budget. Treasury laying out bracket creep and the insidious nature of it. We'll leave it there. Thanks for your time.