Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

27 November 2024

LAURA JAYES: It is the final sitting week of Parliament for the year. Perhaps the last one before the election. That is up for debate though, of course. The Government insists it is going to go full term. Joining me now is Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume. Jane, so good to see you. There's a lot going on in Canberra at the moment, we have got the government introducing the supermarket legislation. You going to support that?

JANE HUME: Well, we'll see the details of this legislation before we support it. But the real question is, where has the government been on this? They've been in government now for two and a half years. We've known that prices have been increasing at supermarkets for a long period of time. I think that they appeared in front of the Cost of Living Committee that I chaired about 18 months ago, and we knew then that competition was a problem. The Coalition’s introduced a bill to deal with it. We could have debated it already, and instead, they waited until the 11th hour before bringing in their own legislation. I don't really think that we can take this government seriously on supermarket reforms. They've dragged their heels for too long.

LAURA JAYES: Inflation, the monthly inflation data is out today. We've also had Donald Trump announce new tariffs. He promised this or threatened this during the campaign. Now he's saying, on day one after his inauguration, which is not till the 20th of January, he'll impose a 10% extra tariff on Chinese goods. There’ll be 25 for Mexico and similar for Canada. What does that mean for us?

JANE HUME: Well, I won't preempt what the inflation data is going to come out and say today, but what we do know, everybody knows, is that inflation has been too high for too long in Australia, and has potentially been made worse by decisions that the government is making. When we have changes in our international economic circumstances like we potentially are seeing in the US. There's two things that are really important here. One is the depth of the relationship that we have with the US, and that has been good, indeed, it's been deepened over time, particularly with the striking f the AUKUS arrangement. But the second most important thing here is that we have an economy that is resilient, economically resilient, and that's where we've really failed, particularly in the last two years. On every metric, our economy has gone backwards and is less resilient than it was just a few years ago. We know that household incomes have gone backwards, real disposable incomes have gone backwards and that economic growth has essentially shuddered to a halt. Productivity has gone backwards, and there doesn't seem to be any end to the pain in sight. We'll just see new data come out today or yesterday. I think it was that said that the pain that households are feeling, standards of living are not expected to return back where they were prior to the inflation crisis, not until the end of 2026 when interest rates are forecast to come down, but potentially till the end of the decade. And that's been a big cold comfort for Australians that are facing a pretty grim Christmas already, six more years of pain because of decisions that the government have made.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah government spending is certainly adding to the inflation. But when you have a more protectionist America under Trump, that is certainly going to affect us. We're almost in an election campaign. We're pretty much in a quasi one already. What we haven't heard from the opposition is how it would be different under you. I mean, could you get inflation and cost of living down within a year? What would you do to do that? Well, would it be another term of pain?

JANE HUME: The focus would be 100% of getting inflation back into band. Because unless you get inflation back into band, you cannot get the cost of…

LAURA JAYES: So there'd be no cash handouts?

JANE HUME: …living under control. You cannot get the cost of living under control. We want to make sure they have a lower, simpler and fairer tax system that delivers lower prices as well as lower emissions. And nuclear is certainly going to be part of that. We want to cut red tape.

LAURA JAYES: Nuclear is not going to deliver lower prices, though. Jane really is it?

JANE HUME: I said, in the long term. In the medium term, we must put more gas into the system…

LAURA JAYES: By 2040?

JANE HUME: to sustainably bring energy. We must bring energy prices down sustainably.

LAURA JAYES: David Littleproud said this to me earlier in the week as well, about gas. So have you got something big cooking when it comes gas, to ensure there is extra supply?

JANE HUME: I can assure you that you will see the full details about energy policy prior to the election, but in the meantime, this is a consistent message that the Coalition have been saying from day one, we want to see net zero emissions future. We need to make sure that that transition also delivers lower power prices, because without that, the cost of living will simply run out of control, and we're seeing that already from this Government. We also need to make sure regulations and red tape because that is pushing out costs for small businesses, and that's been passed on to consumers. Unless you cut regulation and red tape unfortunately that cost of living crisis is going to continue and that has been made worse under this government. Additionally, you need to make sure you bring your fiscal responsibility back into your budgeting processes. Get that public sector spending under control, otherwise, you're going to keep pushing inflation up even further. So yes, the Coalition has a plan to tackle the cost of living, to tackle inflation and to get our economy back on track.

LAURA JAYES: Just one final question. Wayne Swan, he has declined to appeal for a Senate committee. Do you thin he should perhaps rethink that?

JANE HUME: Well, it's a contempt to ignore an invitation from the Senate. When we say invitation what we essentially mean is a demand that he appear that he appear before a Senate committee. There are certainly questions to be answered. There are some things going on at CBUS, and indeed in that industry more broadly, that are of grave concern. There are Australians that have had, that have really suffered because of poor behaviour and poor culture that has existed at CBUS and Wayne Swan has some questions to answer.

LAURA JAYES: Jane Hume, good to see you. Enjoy the, well enjoy. I don’t know, I guess so, enjoy the last couple of days.

JANE HUME: Thanks Laura.