Interview with Laura Jayes, AM Agenda

16 April 2025

LAURA JAYES: Jane, first of all, there was a lot in that media conference that was directed at Peter Dutton that he made false statements in regards to what the Indonesian President has had to say. What do you say about that this morning?

JANE HUME: Well, there's no doubt, Laura, that there are national security implications in the information that we received yesterday about the potential for Russian bases within Indonesia. Now what the Coalition want to know is exactly what has occurred there. We've asked for a briefing from the Foreign Minister. We've asked for a briefing from the Defence Minister so we can better understand exactly what the situation is. It does seem like the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister and the Defence Minister are very busy deflecting questions this morning, rather than directly answering as to whether there has been a request made by Russia. This is something we simply need to understand. The Coalition have asked for a briefing. We'll wait to see what the outcome of that briefing is.

LAURA JAYES: So, you’ve asked for a briefing, and you want to understand, at least privately, whether that request was made. Why? What would be the implication?

JANE HUME: It does seem like both the Defence Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister were blindsided by this information yesterday. Now, if that's the case, perhaps there has been some failure in our diplomatic relations, some failure in our foreign relations. If that's the case, we want to understand it.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, what about defence spending? Is this the last big announcement you've got for this campaign? Because we heard a lot about it in the early parts of the year before we got into the campaign proper. Is it still your intention to increase defence spending?

JANE HUME: Laura, I'm not going to preempt any announcements by Peter Dutton in the lead up to the election. What I will say, though, is that it seems to be a consensus view that Australia's defence spending has been inadequate in order to maintain our national security, and if a government has a number one priority is to keep Australians safe. We want to make sure that our defence capability is substantiated, that it's bolstered and that's the expectation, I think, of all Australians. So we will we're very disappointed to see that about $80 billion has been ripped out of Defence under the Albanese Government. Now, they'll say that they're restoring that, but essentially they're reprioritising only about 50 billion of that. We are a weaker nation because of decisions that the Albanese Government has made. That's something that a Coalition Government will restore.

LAURA JAYES: So you'll spend at least $80 billion more than Labour. Is that correct?

JANE HUME: Laura, I'm not going to preempt any announcement that may be made on Defence. It's very important that I don’t do that.

LAURA JAYES (TALKS OVER): I’m not asking for an announcement. If you say Labor’s ripped out $80 million from Defence, you say you're going to do better on Defence. That's the bare minimum, isn't it? $80 billion more.

JANE HUME: That was $80 billion that they chose to take out of Defence over the last three years, that's left Australians less safe than they were. That's left Defence Forces less capable than they could be. That's not acceptable. We'll make sure that a coalition government lives up to the promise, the first and foremost promise of any Australian government, which is to keep its citizens safe.

LAURA JAYES: Okay, I just want to show you this in terms of safety. This was taken and put on social media because we seem to be in the TikTok election, which, you know, has all the concentration of about seven seconds. But this is a pretty confronting security breach when it came to the Prime Minister, have a look.

(VIDEO EXCERPT)

LAURA JAYES: Yeah, so they're finding their seven seconds of fame on TikTok. This is the kind of thing that's happened to Peter Dutton as well. Is it a security concern or just a pain in the arse?

JANE HUME: Well, we would hope that it doesn't become a genuine security concern, because one of the best things about Australian politics is the fact that we have, for always and forever, been able to interact with the public without those security concerns in the past. Now we know that there have been threats made previously to both Coalition and Labor Members of Parliament and Ministers and that's required increased levels of security. I would hope that it doesn't extend any further than that. If this is a security breach, if it is a leak of information as to where various politicians are going to be at any one time, that's something that's worth pursuing. We want to make sure that we can, face to face, interact with voters every single day without fearing for our own personal safety and I think voters want that too.

LAURA JAYES: We are beyond the halfway point of this campaign now, the polls are trending against you. This is very different to what was happening at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Do you think you can win it from here? How are you keeping your hopes up?

JANE HUME: Laura, we didn't pay any attention to polls last year. We don't pay any attention to polls this year.

LAURA JAYES (TALKS OVER): Oh come on, you all say that.

JANE HUME: What we pay attention to and what we're hearing on the ground every single day, every single day. Yes, we do. For very good reason. The most important poll we can take is the one that's on the ground and every day, when I'm out there talking to voters, knocking on doors, standing outside of supermarkets, going on listening posts, they're telling us the same thing, and that is that they are poorer under Labor, that their standard of living has gone backwards in the last three years, and that they're crying out for change, not simply more of the same. We've seen a cost of living crisis under Labor, an energy crisis under Labor, a housing affordability crisis under Labor, and the only solutions that they have is more of the same. Cleaning up Labor's mess has always been a Coalition responsibility, and it's always been something that we've stepped up to do. We'll do so again.

LAURA JAYES: Jane, you will leave it there and we'll speak to you soon. Thanks so much.