Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

21 May 2025

LAURA JAYES: Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume was listening in on that. She joins us live from Melbourne. It's hard to kind of get your head around how big of a political earthquake this is after such a big an election loss, just three weeks ago. Jane, where to start? Where do you want to start this morning?

JANE HUME: Well, Laura, obviously, this is a terribly disappointing decision by the Nationals to walk away from the Coalition agreement. We respect their decision, we are committed to working collaboratively with them and David knows that Sussan's door is always open. I have to admit I spoke to a couple of my National Party colleagues yesterday and, you know, they're friends. David's a friend. He and I worked together on many issues in the past, some of them very recently and very well. So this obviously is a bit of a blow. That said, it's not the end of the line. The decisions that were on the table as part of this negotiation were four particular policies around nuclear, around divestiture for supermarkets, around the universal service obligation, and also around the Regional Australia Future Fund. Now, these are policies which Liberals and Nationals worked on together and Sussan Ley made it very clear, nothing is off the table. We haven't adopted any policy, but we haven't abandoned any policy either. But after such a devastating election loss, it's perfectly sensible to say that we want to review our entire policy agenda, because unless we can listen to the electorate, heed their message and work towards respecting and reflecting and representing their wishes, well, we put ourselves out of the electoral wilderness for too many years. Now, this is not an impossible journey back. We want to make it in Coalition. We want to do that with our Coalition partners. The door is open. We believe that we can do that again. There's one thing that David didn't bring up, though, that Laura that I think is worth pursuing, and that was this issue around Cabinet solidarity. Sussan is very clear on this. She wants to make sure that when a Shadow Cabinet meets, or when a Cabinet meets, a Coalition Cabinet meets, that we walk out and speak with one voice that's really important, that also was something that The Nationals couldn't agree to. So you can understand why this decision has been made. That said, I do hope, as a coalitionist, a committed coalitionist, that it isn't something that is a permanent proposition.

LAURA JAYES: So what you're saying really, is the demands from the National Party room were, it seems like they were predetermined, because they were just making demands that Sussan Ley couldn't possibly agree to, less than three weeks out from that election loss.

JANE HUME: Well, it's fair and reasonable, and Sussan committed to her party room that we will go through a process of assessing our policy agenda.

LAURA JAYES (TALKS OVER): Are the Nationals not doing that? There doesn't seem to be any critical thinking around the national policy. Yes, there are four principles, and perhaps the wrong language being used. They have full policies, but they're really actually principles, but it doesn't even seem like they got to discussing some of the nitty gritty. I mean, David Littleproud said this morning that it probably would be acceptable to the Nationals party room if the Liberals ended up with a position on nuclear that was just to lift the moratorium.

JANE HUME: Well, certainly that was Sussan Ley's position. She suggested to the Nationals that the Liberals work on their policy agenda, that the Nationals work on their policy agenda, then we come together as a joint party room and work out the compromises, so that we can move forward as a Coalition. That seems to be an unacceptable proposition for the Nationals, which I think we find profoundly disappointing. We hope that they will reconsider that, because it is an important part of a post-election, after a loss in an election, to reflect on what worked and what didn't. Surely, there isn't everything that was in the National Party's agenda that they believe worked 100%, because you're right, they lost seats, though they didn't win back seats that they wanted to win. There must be more to it than that. We want to take the time to get this right, unless we can respect and reflect and then represent modern Australia, then the Coalition will sit on the wrong side of the Treasury benches, on the wrong side of the chambers for way too long. Now, it's not impossible, don't get me wrong. I mean, let's not forget that Anastasia Palaszczuk was in a party room that had, I think it was only nine or so Labor members in the State of Parliament. Within three years, she then went on to be Premier, and she went on to be Premier for about eight years. John Howard came back in 1996 with a Liberal Party majority, but still maintained the Coalition. There is a pathway forward. Politics is a funny game. A lot of things can happen. So you know, where we are now is not where we're going to be in a year's time. It's not where we're going to be in three years time. But we do know that the Coalition is always stronger when it's together.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah, so you agree with John Howard, who says, essentially, the split is stupid?

JANE HUME: Well, we want to see a Coalition move forward together. It is the best way to create stable and effective government. History has shown us that (Interrupted).

LAURA JAYES (TALKS OVER): So there is a stand-off now.

JANE HUME: The door is open.

LAURA JAYES: You’re door is open, they’re saying their door is open. But who is going to make the first move here?

JANE HUME: Well, we need to go through our agenda first. We need to make sure that we commit to going through our entire policy agenda. We'll do that in a very, you know, process driven, a very rational, a very rational way and thorough way, to make sure that what we want to offer as a Liberal Party to the electorate of the next agenda is appealing and credible and people can see their own lives reflected in the principles and values and the policies that we perform.

LAURA JAYES: How long do you expect this review to take? I mean, six months? Little bit longer? Doesn't really matter when an election is three years away.

JANE HUME: Well, that's a good question, and that will have been entirely up to Sussan Ley and her leadership team to determine, but we want to make sure it's thorough, and we want to make sure that it's effective, because we don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past. We want to make sure that we can move on, move forward, and provide a genuine, credible alternative for Australian electors.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, Jane, great to see you. We'll speak again soon.