‘Straighten your tiara and let's get on with the job': Hume admits she took Ley dumping personally
The embattled senator spoke publicly for the first time about her shock demotion to breakfast television on Friday. The Coalition frontbench was unveiled earlier in the week, revealing Hume had been booted from her previous role in shadow finance.
'If you're asking me whether … I feel hurt or slighted by this move from Sussan, of course it hurts. It hurts professionally because I was a hard-working and prolific and high-profile member of the frontbench in the previous opposition,' Hume told Seven's Sunrise.
'It hurts personally, too, because you know, Sussan and I are friends … [however], this isn't the playground, this is the parliament. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to make a difference.'
Hume's open frustration will test Ley's ability to manage disappointed party members who are no longer bound by shadow cabinet solidarity, following the open disappointment expressed by Nationals defector Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Sky News hours after she was sent to the outer ministry role of defence industry and personnel.
Hume said she would now be free to speak her mind, and that would make for good television.
'There is something very liberating about being on the backbench and being able to speak without having to stick to the party line and without having to stick to talking points. That's certainly going to make for much more interesting Sunrise interviews. So, you're very lucky, I think,' Hume said to host Natalie Barr.
Hume came under fire during the election campaign as the lead on the Coalition's policy ordering public servants back to the office full-time. Then-opposition leader Peter Dutton backfliped on the policy a little over a week into the campaign.
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