Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume brands Labor deficit figures ‘nonsense’, calls for spending restraint

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume has criticised Labor’s attack on the Coalition’s economic credibility after their proposal to establish a bipartisan task force into government spending was rejected. The Albanese government has released figures it says showed the federal budget would be $14bn more in deficit if the Coalition had won the 2025 election. The figures provided show the deficits recorded by the government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) and the Coalition’s proposed budget costings during the election campaign. These figures show Labor’s MYEFO costings came to a $36.8bn, while the Coalition projected a $47.8bn deficit in 2025-26. This $11bn deficit difference between the two parties shrinks to $3bn in 2026-27, but leaves the budget worse off under the Coalition plan, according to the government’s numbers. It does not include the costings for the Coalition’s controversial nuclear plan. Senator Hume told Sky News on Monday the numbers provided were “entirely irrelevant”. “I love the fact that Jim Chalmers has spent so much time looking at numbers that don’t exist … when he could be looking at his own,” she said. Labor’s public spending has come under scrutiny after critics, including the Liberal Party and leading economists, linked it to a higher-than-expected increase in annual inflation and subsequent interest rate rise. Mr Chalmers has defended the Commonwealth’s spending as “responsible”. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has said it would be “difficult” to make cuts due to pressure in high-priority areas such as defence, aged care, and social services. Senator Hume and new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor have declared the Liberal economic agenda under their stewardship will target public spending. Senator Hume, when asked where a Liberal government would make cuts, said: “This is the government’s responsibility. It’s their job to work out where it is that they can save money.” To curb public spending, Mr Taylor has not ruled out cuts to the public service – one of Peter Dutton’s most controversial proposals during the last federal election. When asked about the move, Mr Taylor has avoided a definitive answer, instead insisting on Sunday: “The government has to be fit for purpose.” Last week, Mr Taylor wrote to Anthony Albanese establish a bipartisan taskforce to find “practical, responsible and jointly supported measures for spending restraint”. Senator Hume said the move was a “genuine offer of bipartisanship”, despite Mr Chalmers earlier deriding the move as a “predictable stunt”. “We know that government spending means that inflation keeps going up … and Australians are getting poorer,” she said. “ … We want to help them with spending, but they have refused and rejected that offer. Now that is the sign of an irresponsible government.” Earlier, Mr Chalmers was scathing of Mr Taylor’s experience as shadow treasurer after the Liberal leader described Labor’s management of the economy as a “disaster”, saying Australians’ standard of living was “going backwards” as a result. Mr Chalmers described Mr Taylor as the “poster child for the Coalition’s economic insanity” when pointing to the difference in figures between the government’s MYEFO results and the Coalition’s budget costings during the election campaign. “These figures show Angus Taylor has no credibility on the economy and that’s exactly why the Liberal Party is a complete bin fire,” Mr Chalmers said in a statement. “The Liberals went to the election with a plan for higher taxes, bigger deficits and more debt, and you see that in these stats. “Angus Taylor and Jane Hume blew up their election campaign, they blew up their economic credibility, and these numbers show they would have blown the budget too.”