A meme on social media claims Liberal senator Jane Hume said: “We don’t have policies, we are in opposition. Our job is to oppose everything and offer nothing.”
The first sentence of the coalition finance spokeswoman’s quote is genuine, but the second sentence is misattributed.
Senator Hume did say “we don’t have policies, we are in opposition”, but she did not say “our job is to oppose everything and offer nothing”.
A citation on the meme’s quote alleges the comments were made during Senator Hume’s appearance on the ABC’s Insiders program on September 25.
The meme (screenshot here) has been widely shared on Facebook (see here and here) and Twitter (see here and here).
However, the transcript shows she did not say the words attributed to her.
When asked by Insiders host David Speers if the coalition supported the Labor government’s decision to end the temporary fuel excise cut on September 28, Senator Hume said: “It is our policy. It was our policy. We don’t have policies, we are in opposition, we’re not in government.”
The fuel tax relief was implemented in March 2022 by the former coalition government as a “temporary, targeted” way to reduce the cost of living for Australian households and small businesses.
AAP FactCheck‘s transcript of the relevant segment of Senator Hume’s Insiders interview is below.
JANE HUME: Well, my view is that the government will make its decision. What it does need to do though is address those other cost of living pressures that are facing Australians today.
DAVID SPEERS: Well this is one of them and I’m just asking you, your position. You have positions on other things like the aged pension, for example, you have announced what the government should be doing there. So on this, on fuel, should it come to an end?
HUME: Well that was our policy.
SPEERS: But now?
HUME: It is our policy. It was our policy. We don’t have policies, we are in opposition, we’re not in government.
SPEERS: Well you do, you have the policy on the aged pension. What about fuel?
JANE HUME: It is not a policy that we can implement, even if we had a different position. Our policy was a temporary cost of living measure for the fuel excise. That’s going ahead. The government’s made its decision…
The full video of Senator Hume’s Insiders interview is here. The comments in question can be viewed at video mark 2min 38sec.
A transcript of the full interview is available on Senator Hume’s website here (archived here).
At no point in the interview did Senator Hume say “our job is to oppose everything and offer nothing”.
AAP FactCheck can find no evidence Senator Hume has ever said the phrase in question. At the time of writing, a Google search for the phrase returned references to Senator Hume’s purported quote on Insiders but no evidence the senator had ever said it.
The Verdict
Liberal senator Jane Hume said in an interview that “we don’t have policies, we are in opposition”. However, she did not go on to say “Our job is to oppose everything and offer nothing”, as claimed in a meme.
Mostly False – The claim is mostly inaccurate but includes minor elements of truth.
* AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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