Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

30 April 2025

LAURA JAYES: I just want to pick up there, where Georgie left off Jane. Keith Wolahan saying that Labor has always used multicultural Australia as a transaction. What does it mean by that? Do you agree?

JANE HUME: That's a good question, Laura. Can I say one of the things that has given me great heart as I've been travelling around the country in the last two weeks working on pre poll polling booths with candidates and volunteers. It's just the extraordinary extent of multicultural Australia that are now participating for the Liberal Party in handing out how to vote cards or allowing us to access communities through different forums. Because the Liberal Party has a series of values that represents multicultural Australia, freedom and choice and personal responsibility, the primacy of family, the importance of small business and individual agency. That's what the Liberal Party stands for and multicultural communities are now seeing their own values reflected in that and that's why we've been such a broad and diverse range of people that are participating now in the political process on our side of the ledger in a way that I think we haven't seen before.

LAURA JAYES: Let's talk about the polls then, because they have all been trending away from you, away from the Coalition, away from Peter Dutton, more specifically, over the last five weeks. Why do you think that is? Do you think, have any empirical evidence that we're not seeing that might show that the polls are wrong and how significant is this potential One Nation bump you might get?

JANE HUME: So we are not concentrating on the polls we haven't done for the last 12, 18 months, and we're certainly not doing it now, because what we're hearing on the ground is very different to what we're seeing on headlines. The lived experience of Australians in the last two years that they have gone backwards. They've been poorer under Labor and certainly the polls that I'm working on here in Victoria, the response has been visceral, fury at not just the Albanese Government, but the Allan Government here, but how their quality of life has dropped so far. Standards of living in Australia have gone backwards by around 9%. That's because their real disposable income has dried up over three years because of inflation, because of high interest rates and because of higher taxes, and Australians are telling us that they know they can't afford another three years of Labor. That’s what we are hearing on the polling booths, that may not be reflected in the polls, but I think it will play out on Saturday night.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, let's talk about you’re costings then, because I did note Anthony Albanese trying to make much of the fact today, where are the Coalition's costings? When they'd only done theirs, little over 12 hours before. That's all part of the argy bargy of the campaign, I suppose. So we can't blame them for that. But we are finally going to get your ledger tomorrow. Will things add up? Are you going to give us more than just, you know, the efficiency dividends out of the public service that we saw from Labor yesterday?

JANE HUME: Laura, I can assure you that our costings are imminent, imminent and not only will they add up, but they will show that we will have a better bottom line than Labor, a significantly better bottom line than Labor, and that we will be working towards a much stronger and more resilient economy, I found it extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary, in the last couple of days, that the Prime Minister could show such a glass jaw and criticism by a ratings agency, an international ratings agency, that said, because of the poor management of the economy, our credit rating is at risk. Now, the Coalition are very proud to have maintained a AAA credit rating even throughout those very dangerous, very volatile Covid years and yet our credit rating is now at risk even in a period of relative stability under Anthony Albanese. Even in a period where there was record windfall revenue gains because of high commodity prices. Our credit rating is now at risk. Anthony Albanese is in denial if he thinks that this isn't because of his poor economic management.

LAURA JAYES: I want to talk about your costings for just a moment. When you say imminent, I'm assuming tomorrow, but are they this afternoon?

JANE HUME: I should be really clear. Costings can't be released until people have finished announcing policies. Even Labor, up until a couple of days ago, we're announcing $2 billion worth of payments to the States for more social housing because their social housing policy

LAURA JAYES: I mean they can be done at anytime.

JANE HUME: But the costings package certainly can't be. You've got to have a final number, and the final number is what will be delivered, imminently, when I say imminently, it obviously has to be done within a certain period of time before the election. We are running out of days, so you can imagine it will be very, very close.

LAURA JAYES (TALKS OVER): But not at the end, not Friday afternoon surely?

JANE HUME: No, it won’t be on Friday afternoon. I can guarantee, it’s not Friday afternoon. I think you can safely assume that is the case.

LAURA JAYES: Alright, thank you. So, are you going to be up front with Australians? Because, I mean, we sit here every day, I sit here every day, looking at the promises being made, and we are completely honest with our audience, both sides, you and the government, whoever is in power in the next term, is going to have to cut. Are you going to be upfront with Australians tomorrow?

JANE HUME: We've already said that we have opposed a number of measures by the government, whether it be the Housing Australia Future Fund, $10 billion to not build a house, whether it be the Rewiring the Nation Fund, which is there to provide 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires, criss crossing the nation, the equivalent of twice around the country.

LAURA JAYES: I mean, are we going to learn something new tomorrow, though, because Housing Australia Future Fund is off budget and Rewiring the Nation, yeah, you're not going to do as much, but you're still going to have to do some of it, because you still have renewables in your final energy plan. So, besides the Public Service in Canberra, are you going to have to cut elsewhere, outside of those umbrellas?

JANE HUME: All of our costings will be made very clear tomorrow. But what I can guarantee you, is that there is a better bottom line than Labor, which is really important. Because let's face it, we want to return the fiscal guardrails back to the budget. We have to get the budget back to structural balance at some stage, and a credible pathway to get there is so important. We want to make sure that we pay down debt, building those fiscal buffers, those economic buffers, that the IMF, that the OECD, that the rating agencies have all told us are so important. What you'll see when our costings are released will be consistent with everything that Angus Taylor and I and the whole economic team have been saying for three years. That Labor has been managing the economy poorly, that they have kept inflation too high for too long because of their persistent spending, that they have wasted windfall revenue gains by frittering them away or embedding them in recurrent expenditure, which is highly irresponsible. A Coalition Government has historically brought a budget back into balance and paid down debt, and we will be able to do so again, but we won't be able to do so unless on Saturday, people vote, put number one next to their Liberal candidate, because we cannot afford another three years of Labor, not this generation, and not the next generation.

LAURA JAYES: Jane, only a couple of days ago, we will see you soon. Good luck.