Interview with Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller, ABC Adelaide

26 March 2025

SONYA FELDHOFF: Senator, good morning to you.

JANE HUME: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

SONYA FELDHOFF: Now, your Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, has called the tax cuts announced in the Labor Federal Budget last night a cruel hoax. Will your Budget Reply offer any kind of tax cuts?

JANE HUME: We certainly don't support these changes. They really are nothing than a dupe. They are an effort to purchase votes. And I don't think that South Australians will fall for this. I mean, can your vote be bought for what's essentially a tax cut of 70 cents a day that does not start for 15 months? This has clearly been a budget that's aimed at the next five weeks, not the next five years, and certainly not the next 50 years. It's a budget for the election, not one for the country and future prosperity.

SONYA FELDHOFF: So in the next five weeks, are you ruling out tax cuts from the Liberals?

JANE HUME: Well, the Budget in Reply will be delivered tomorrow night, and at that point in time, the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, will announce our plan, our plan for the future of Australia, for future prosperity, and that will include things like lower energy prices, which will sustainably bring down the cost of living, getting the budget back on track and restoring those fiscal disciplines, making sure that we've got affordable homes, reining in The out of control migration programme that's occurred under this government, which was now seeing around 1.8 new migrants in five years alone, and most importantly, making sure our country is safe and secure, because national security is the first priority of a good government.

JULES SCHILLER: So are you, when you talk about energy bills, are you going to uphold the energy rebate, which is continuing in the Budget, or are you looking to do something different?

JANE HUME: No, we've said that we'll support the energy rebate, but let's face it, this is a subsidy. Your own money being returned to you to compensate for Labor's failings in energy policy. While we move to a Coalition policy, which will immediately put more gas into the system, fast track more gas approval to increase supply and bring down prices, we will support that transition to that new energy programme, that new energy policy with subsidies which unfortunately are necessary because Labor's policy has failed. And in the long term, will replace coal fired power stations, those dirty coal fired power stations, with zero emissions nuclear energy to bring down prices in the long term, it will change the entire energy system to make sure that we have both affordable and reliable as well as clean energy in Australia.

SONYA FELDHOFF: Yeah, but your nuclear energy plan is a costly one. Where is that money coming from?

JANE HUME: Well, in fact, when you cost out, and we did not do this, this was an independent economist. This is Frontier Economics. When you cost out the energy system that is being proposed by the Coalition compared to the energy system that has been proposed by Labor, our energy system is 44% cheaper than Labor’s proposal. Their renewables only approach is, in fact, pushing up energy prices and making the grid less reliable. That's why we need to push gas into the system straight away, like fast track those approvals, increase supply and break down prices, because that's one of the great drivers of the cost of living crisis.

JULES SCHILLER: Well, I guess those costings are going to be teased out more in the budget. There's obviously different views on that. Jane Hume, but let's get to South Australia. Specifically. Will you back the Federal Labor Government's plan to give $125 million to Curtis Road to remove the level crossing, because we didn't seem to get a lot of infrastructure spending promises in South Australia this time around?

JANE HUME: I think it's a paltry amount that South Australia got this time around. I think of all the states of South Australia got the least amount of investment in productive capacity and building infrastructure. And I would, if I were a South Australian, I'd be somewhat disappointed in this. I know that the my home state of Victoria, seemed to fare extremely well, but that's because that's an election battleground.

SONYA FELDHOFF: So we can expect huge largesse from the Liberals for South Australian infrastructure projects?

JANE HUME: You'll never expect largesse from the Liberals, we are responsible economic managers. And when Labor leave a mess behind in their budget,we always come in to clean it up.

SONYA FELDHOFF: So what have you got for South Australia?

JANE HUME: You’ll find out more, you’ll find out more at the Coalition's Budget in Reply on Thursday night. But what I can say is that South Australians, indeed, all Australians, will always be better off under a Coalition, because we deliver responsible economic management and prosperity for all Australians. Most important thing we can do right now is rein in that ridiculous Budget spending which is now blown out…

SONYA FELDHOFF (interrupts): But you've matched most of it.

JANE HUME: $42 billion deficit this year. We've now finally hit a trillion dollars in debt, and there seems to be no plan to pay for it. There is red ink, as far as the eye can see.

SONYA FELDHOFF: Peter Dutton has matched most of the proposals we've heard already that have already been pre-released.

JANE HUME: Well, we've certainly decided that we need to clean up Labor's mess, whether it be in health, health, because bulk billing has collapsed, and Labor said that they now have a health plan that's going to address their own failings of that policy, and we're certainly going to support a subsidy to help the transition from a failed Labor energy policy to a successful coalition energy policy that will bring down prices sustainably.

JULES SCHILLER: So is your budget going to provide migration caps?

JANE HUME: Yes, I can safely say and we've been pretty clear on this from day one, that at some point in time we need to rein in net migration, because we are now running out of control. And look, I say this as a Victorian the vast majority of the new migrants that have moved to Australia, 1.8 million over five years, they have moved to Sydney and to Melbourne, the congestion and the housing crisis…

JULES SCHILLER: Will you give us specific numbers on those caps?

JANE HUME: Well we’'ll have more to say. We'll have more to say on our migration policy, both in the budget and reply, but more importantly, in the lead up to the election,

JULES SCHILLER: But they pay income tax, which is a large part of our Federal Budget. So in reducing migration, won't you reduce at the base of our income tax?

JANE HUME: There is no doubt that skilled migration adds, adds value to to our economy, but not all migrants are skilled migrants, and we need to make sure that we rebalance our migration programme to make sure that it's actually delivering an increase in quality of life and standard of living for all Australians, not detracting from it by simply pushing up the price of housing and overwhelming our infrastructure, whether it be our roads and rail or our health infrastructure as well.

SONYA FELDHOFF: Okay, so we have to wait till tomorrow night's Budget Reply to find out if we're getting tax cuts. But one of the criticisms of last night's Budget that we didn't see any tax reform. Can you confirm one way or the other, whether the Liberals will look at tax reform?

JANE HUME: We are dedicated to delivering lower and simpler and fairer taxes at a time when we can afford it to do so. But most importantly, we have already supported significant tax changes, including deciding not to go ahead with the unfair and unworkable tax on unrealised capital gains that's been proposed by this government and already baked into its to its bottom line, we've said that we will increase the instant asset right off to $30,000 and we'll also make that a permanent feature of the budget that's productive that's productive investment for small businesses. Labor has cut the instant asset right off completely. That was a real lifeline for small businesses. And we've also said that we will simplify the tax system for small businesses by making meal expenses tax deductible and removing FBT to help our hospitality sector.

JULES SCHILLER: We'll have to move on. Obviously, we'll speak more extensively about this on Friday. Just Yes or No. Will you commit to the 20 per cent reduction in student debt?

JANE HUME: No, we have said that we will not be doing that. We think that's profoundly unfair. I mean, not only does it mean that former students that have already paid off their debt are now paying off another student's loans, but also those that don't go to university are paying off other students loans.

JULES SCHILLER: Jane Hume, Senator Jane Hume, I should say sorry, is a Shadow Federal Finance Minister. It's just giving her views on the federal budget, which aren't rosy, as you'd imagine.