From “Chinese spies” gaffe to deputy leader, the senator’s resurgence in the Liberal Party
Jane Hume has a saying that she often utters in interviews, especially when asked for advice: “Don’t be angry, get well.”
That’s what the Victorian Liberal senator was trying to do after last year’s crushing election defeat.
He traveled to the UK and organized his own study tour with Conservatives involved in rebuilding the party in the 2000s and others currently grappling with the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform.
Coming in second place, Hume began working on policies that concerned him, including a special bill that would allow couples to split their retirement benefits.
And he moved forward among the people. “Instead of hiding under the Doona… I was much more inclined to eventually go to the hairdresser, get rid of the greys, buy myself a new suit and a new lipstick, put on the armor and get back out there,” Hume said. Female Leadership of the Future podcast last year.
As in politics, the odds are changing: Hume, 54, is now the front-runner, and his colleagues elected him deputy leader by 30 votes to 20 in last week’s leak.
Angus will take on the workplace, industrial relations, productivity and deregulation portfolios at Taylor’s new-look front desk; This is an effort to highlight the country’s productivity woes. The mother-of-three, who hails from inner-city Melbourne after entering the Senate 10 years ago from the finance and banking sector, is now the most senior woman in the Liberal Party.
This comes with the expectation that it will appeal to urban professionals and women who shy away from the Liberals. Hume co-wroteParty’s 2022 election reviewHe said that these voters must be won back in order to form the government. That did not happen, and while the party’s support is at its lowest level in decades, its remit is now much broader: it must help consolidate the Liberal base overall and unite a fragmented party room.
“The time for fear is over,” Hume said in this imprint this week. “I have no intention of being the manager or overseer of the steady decline of my party and my country… We shouldn’t go around trying to please everyone. We should be consistent in who we are and what we say.”
As an example, he said the Liberals were risk-averse on health and child care policy. “If we stay away from this kind of talk and put forward real alternatives, we don’t deserve to win the hearts and minds of the people whose votes we seek.”
Hume himself isn’t much of a pussy errand boy. For such a prolific media artist, this can sometimes be problematic. His resurgence is complicated by the fact that he was the face of some of the big mistakes of last year’s campaign.
His “Chinese spies” gaffes on morning television offended Chinese Australians and he became known for losing diaspora voters in droves. The work-from-home edict for public servants was so unpopular that it was canceled before the election.
Hume apologized for the “ill-considered” remarks and admitted that the work-from-home pressure policy had been a mistake. But overall he doesn’t go overboard with regret. “Look, haters gonna hate,” he says. “If I don’t do it, who will? You must be made of tougher stuff.”
Australians should expect more from Hume’s direct speech. Already several days of this week have been spent with back-to-back media interviews. “I don’t want to waste even a day,” he says. “There’s no point in being here if you’re not going to stand in front of the media and voice your principles.”
Hume knows that being disliked is part of the job. She described an interaction on a quiet street early on a Saturday morning in the middle of the state election campaign: She was walking with her coffee and dry cleaners, wearing gym clothes, when another woman arrived.
“Just as he passed me, he leaned over and said, ‘You’re an idiot.’ And then he kept walking,” Hume said. Female Leadership of the Future podcast. “That’s when I realized I really was a politician because the first thing that went through my mind was: ‘Oh, my profile is improving.’”
But his charm and cheerfulness also add to his appeal. In the same podcast, Hume talked about working at a board with an intelligent, intense woman who would often break out into a smile in the middle of explaining or discussing something. “It’s impossible not to smile back; you’re suddenly drawn to this person,” he said.
“That was a huge skill. I have to admit, I use this trick occasionally when I feel like I’m in a tough situation or a tough interview: I’ll smile for a moment. And the response you get is incredible.”
This can even be noticed in Senate forecast hearings – his welcome to ASIC chief Joe Longo was noted for 2024, for example. (“Whenever I see Mr. Longo, it seems to be at the gym on Saturday mornings, so I apologize for the Lycra. Less worthy men have seen much less of me,” Hume joked, before a long pause. “Sorry, I forgot myself for a moment. I’m going to ask some questions about something serious now.” He joked in return: “I can assure the committee that I will never be seen in Lycra.”)
When asked about this personality, Hume says: “You can be taken very seriously without losing your politeness. You don’t have to choose one or the other.”
Hume grew up in a Liberal-voting household in Melbourne, and as a child he was handed out cards on how to vote at polling booths. His family had joined the Liberals at the time of Whitlam’s dismissal: his father was a small business owner and his mother a solicitor.
His first corporate job was as a financial advisor at the National Australia Bank shortly after superannuation was introduced. He later moved on to more senior roles at Rothschild, Deutsche Bank and Australian Super.
Politics was always a hobby, until it became something more when Hume returned to college to study politics in her 30s, while pregnant with her second child.. He became more involved as a Liberal volunteer before Victoria’s chief minister asked him to run for the Senate in the 2016 election.
He served as financial services minister in the Morrison government and was finance spokesman in the last parliament before being booted from the front bench under Sussan Ley. This was due both to his electoral errors and to the fact that MPs suspected the moderate Hume of backing the conservative Taylor in the first leadership vote last May; This left a bitter taste for some of Ley’s like-minded colleagues who were promoted to the shadow ministry.
From the backbenchers, Hume was outspoken about some of Ley’s calls. For example, he said Ley’s demands for Kevin Rudd to be sacked as US ambassador were “a bit rude” and that he would not tell people what to wear after Ley attacked Anthony Albanese’s Joy Division T-shirt. Hume last week was one of the first MPs to float the idea of change, warning that leadership and worsening poll results would lead to the Liberals’ demise.
This gave some Liberal women the impression that Hume was involved in undermining the party’s first female leader. But it also fits the character of a senator who hates groupthink and describes himself as the first person to intervene when something goes wrong. “I actually think we should have an obligation to be dissenting,” he said.
Hume is now keen to emphasize common ground. “I believe the conservative-moderate divide among liberals is exaggerated. The things we agree on are pretty simple: lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, good economic management, and encouraging the private sector,” he says.
“I just want the Liberal Party to be the best party it can be. I am a creature of my party and I know we can achieve this when we work together.”
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Natassia Chrysanthos is a Federal Political Correspondent. He has previously reported on immigration, health, social issues and the NDIS from Parliament House in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
