Falsely captioned image of Senator Jane Hume goes viral

^{By Ellen Blake}

A photo of Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume has been captioned to falsely quote her as telling the ABC’s Insiders program that the Opposition’s job was to “oppose everything and offer nothing”.

The image has been spread across social media platforms by anti-Liberal Party and pro-Labor Party groups and pages, with the original post on Twitter amassing almost 2000 likes and 500 retweets over three days.

The photo, which is a screenshot of Senator Hume’s appearance on Insiders on September 25, was overlaid with a caption attributed to her, saying: “We don’t have policies, we are in opposition. Our job is to oppose everything and offer nothing.”

RMIT FactLab examined footage of the program and the transcript and found that while Senator Hume did say the Opposition had no policies, she never used the phrase, “our job is to oppose everything and offer nothing”.

A video of the interview, posted by the Insiders Twitter account, shows Senator Hume responding to a question from host David Speers on whether the Opposition supported reinstating the fuel excise. (The full interview can be seen on ABC iview here).

“It is our policy. It was our policy. We don’t have policies, we are in Opposition, we’re not in government,” she said.

When pressed further by Mr Speers, Senator Hume said: “My view is that the government will make its decision. What it does need to do is address the other cost of living pressures that are facing Australians today.”

The video does not show Senator Hume saying the Opposition’s job is to “oppose everything and offer nothing”.

Likewise, a transcript of the Insiders interview posted on Senator Hume’s website also shows that those words were not said.  

Since the interview, Senator Hume’s comment that “we don’t have policies”, has, however, attracted significant media attention.