Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Transcript

Doorstop- Mural Hall, Parliament House

Topics: Census; inflation; interest rates; RBA; housing; gambling reform; Japanese PM.

E&OE……………………..

Tim Wilson: Good afternoon, everybody, and I guess what you'd say is happy Census day. The last time Australia had a census in August 2021, the underlying inflation rate was 2.1%. Today, it's at 3.6%, above the RBA's target band, which is why Australians continue to be exposed to the risks of rising inflation because of the Albanese government's active inflation agenda. The Albanese government's plan has continued to be to stoke inflation, to tax inflation, to then spend inflation in a vicious cycle so they can take more money from Australian households, and it continues to put upward pressure on interest rates. Today, Australian households may not have got an increase, but we know that the RBA continues to warn of increases into the future because of the inflation pressure the Albanese government is putting on the Reserve Bank. The Albanese government has been playing a game of interest rate chicken with the Reserve Bank, daring them to increase interest rates every step of the way. The RBA continues to call out the problems of government spending and its impact on driving demand that is increasing pressure on interest rates, and all that means is Australian households will continue to suffer the consequences of persistent inflation, which means when they go to the supermarket, they pay more for less, and the persistent problems of higher interest rates, which is slowly breaking the back of many Australians and, of course, small businesses. We have record low consumer confidence, record low small business confidence, and we have had record small business insolvencies because of rising costs. There's a time where the government needs to own responsibility for their decisions and the impact they're having on declining living standards of Australians, the biggest drop in living standards in the advanced world while real wages continue to be outstripped by the Albanese government's active inflation agenda.

Journalist: Just saw you get booted out of the chamber, is there anything else you wanted to say that you didn't have the opportunity to?

Tim Wilson: The Prime Minister lies so easily. He has embarrassed Australia on the international stage. He continues to engage in misleading and deceptive conduct in the community, and he won't take responsibility for his behaviour. He won't take responsibility for the fact that he is actively increasing inflation and interest rates on the Australian community, and at every point he continues to be the source of Australia's household pain. What Australians need now more than ever is hope. Hope that can only come from a change of government and from a policy plan like ours that focuses specifically on making sure that taxes come down for the Australian community, that households have a pathway forward, small business is able to go on and survive, rather than the crushing blow that continues to come down from the Albanese government.

Journalist: Tim, Kevin Hogan asked about rents increasing by about 10% in the last few months since the budget, or at least since about March. Jim Chalmers said that Treasury assumptions in the budget on the impact on the housing market are assumptions over the next couple of years, and not just over the first couple of months. What do you say to higher rents, and do you think that is a result of the budget and that the government is hiding behind their figures in the Treasury analysis?

Tim Wilson: What we've seen is this playbook in Victoria where the government increases taxes on housing, it reduces the amount of available rental supply, and while migration continues to go up, demand goes up, but available houses to rent doesn't meet up with it. That's why one of the key parts of our plan is to make sure that there's a link between housing development and migration. Because if not, you get continued demand on rentals, and prices rise. We've lived this in Victoria. The Prime Minister has exported the corrupt and failed model from Victoria and taken it Australia-wide, and Australians, particularly young Australians, will continue to live with the consequences of the Albanese government: fewer homes, higher rents, higher prices for first home buyers, and smashed confidence.

Journalist: Can you give us any sort of update on where discussions are at with Labor on gambling reform, and other movements on major policy like this?

Tim Wilson: These questions are better directed to the Shadow Minister for Communications, Senator Sarah Henderson.

Journalist: Have you got any concerns about a lot of the things we've heard about gambling reform that is closely tied to sporting codes, how they make their money, and how much money that brings in for the nation as a whole? Have you got any concerns?

Tim Wilson: My focus is to make sure that we get a package that works to protect the rights and freedoms of Australia, protect the importance of children to be able to be free of gambling advertising and to be able to develop without that influence. The balance in how we get that in law is a conversation that is still ongoing with the government and is, of course, being led by the Shadow Minister for Communications with, of course, the Leader of the Opposition. The key thing is we get the package right, and I'm focused on the crippling problems that Australians are experiencing from persistent inflation and higher interest rates and the need for hope to see a change from this terrible Labor government.

Journalist: Does the Prime Minister need to apologise for ‘Melon-gate’?

Tim Wilson: Well, I think everybody expects the Prime Minister to just do one decent thing: own his behaviour and apologise so that the country can move on. He's become an international embarrassment. He's embarrassing the country, and he was asked multiple times during Question Time today to simply apologise so the country could move on. Instead, he engaged in his, let's say, trademark bluster to deflect, because this is not a Prime Minister that takes responsibility for anything: international embarrassments, higher inflation, or the higher interest rates that Australians are living right now.

[ENDS]