Wednesday, 9 September 2026

Topics: inflation; interest rates; superannuation; Baby Tax.

E&OE……………………..

Peter Stefanovic: Joining us live this morning, the Shadow Treasurer, Tim Wilson. Tim, good to have you company today. So, will you pursue a plan to allow early access to super as well?

Tim Wilson: Our focus is on making sure we have a sustainable superannuation system that works with people graduating through their stages of life so that they can get the three pillars of a retirement system. One is Australians being able to own their own home. The second one is superannuation. And the third one is making sure there's a safety net pension. And that's going to be our focus in any policy we take forward.

Peter Stefanovic: Okay, does that involve early withdrawal of superannuation though?

Tim Wilson: We haven't made any announcements along these lines. Of course, we'll always go through our normal policy processes [interrupted]

Peter Stefanovic: So, there could be one?

Tim Wilson: You're now trying to verbal me, Peter. The reality is the Treasurer loves to engage in hyper-ventilation. He's consistently been caught out every step of the way throughout his budget. This is a man now drowning in his own inflation. This morning there's revelations now he's putting a new tax on babies. I mean, this is extraordinary. The old adage is that there are three certainties in life: birth, death and taxes. Jim Chalmers seems to have misunderstood that. It isn't birth taxes, death taxes, and then of course taxes on taxes, but that's what he's delivered.

Peter Stefanovic: Okay, but back on superannuation, was One Nation's plan going to be unveiled by Sussan Ley before she was knifed?

Tim Wilson: Well, I never saw a copy of that plan, and so I'm afraid this was all news to me. I read about it like everybody else. And that certainly [interrupted]

Peter Stefanovic: You were in the economic team, so this is a furphy, is it?

Tim Wilson: No, I said I didn't see a copy of it. I understand that there was a copy in her office, it was never shared, as far as I'm aware, with me. So, all I have to do is make observations based on what is public reporting. This is not our focus. Our focus is actually how we address the fundamental problem of inflation at the heart of the economy. We have a government with an active inflation agenda that is deliberately stoking inflation so they can tax inflation, then spend the inflation in a vicious cycle that is solely making Australians poorer. We know internationally bond markets are now saying we're not going to keep buying debt at the prices we have in years past. Australia is now exposed. We're going to reassure the country not to follow these fringe political parties.

Peter Stefanovic: You were and are in the economic team. It would be odd if you weren't aware of this, if it was on Sussan Ley's desk, wouldn't you?

Tim Wilson: Well, it never went through those processes [interrupted]

Peter Stefanovic: So, you weren't aware of it at all? You weren't aware of this plan?

Tim Wilson: I want to be clear, as far as I'm aware, I am not aware of that plan. I do not believe it was ever put before the committee that I was on. You’d have to speak to the former leader and the processes she took forward, but it did not, as far as I'm aware, involve me.

Peter Stefanovic: Okay, are you concerned about policy leaks to One Nation within your ranks about first tobacco and now super?

Tim Wilson: No. I think they're off doing their thing. They don't have a plan to unite the country. We have a government that is deliberately stoking fights around the kitchen tables of the nation. We have One Nation out there engaging a kind of woke identity politics. They're looking for cheap solutions that they can't even answer for. Their economic spokesperson, Barnaby Joyce, has said they haven't done any economic modelling sitting behind it and they're not focused on how they're going to build the strength of the country. When we've got international bond markets saying that the cost of public debt is going to increase when we have an active inflation agenda from a government, what we need is prudent financial management, and we need an economic plan that we have to grow the economy. They're just looking at piecemeal measures for headlines.

Peter Stefanovic: If let's talk about your withdrawal policy that might well be coming though. If that policy is weaker than One Nation's, you surrender the contest to Pauline. But if you go harder, you will get a full-frontal attack from Labor. So, what sort of a bind does that put you in?

Tim Wilson: This is a purely hypothetical conversation, Pete. That is not the direction which we're heading at the moment. When we have a policy, we'll announce it. In the meantime, what we actually would like to do is stop the government deliberately stoking inflation, which is taking more of Australians' incomes through higher income taxes. I hate to break it to you, Pete, we have a government that is addicted to inflation. Until we address that addiction, people's incomes are going to decline, and it doesn't matter whether you take money out of superannuation or anywhere else, it's not going to stop Australians drowning under cost of living.

Peter Stefanovic: But are you conceding ground to One Nation? I mean, our latest News24 Polls proves that, are they stealing your thunder at the moment?

Tim Wilson: No, they're not cutting out lunch, not stealing our thunder, they're not anything that is the different ways you can make that expression. They're doing their thing, we're going to do our thing. We're the only party that has a plan about how we're going to get Australia out of a long-term economic challenge, which is being stoked by this government that is trying to start fights around the kitchen tables of the nation. We have a Labor Party that is dividing the nation. We have One Nation that wants to divide the nation on woke identity politics. We want a nation that goes forward united, where hard work pays off, Australians are in control of their lives, and they feel a basic sense of respect and national unity of purpose.

Peter Stefanovic: Just one more here, what do you estimate the cost would be to the pension in the long run if there is any attempt at early withdrawal of superannuation?

Tim Wilson: You're asking me what projected analysis of a policy that we didn't develop, that those who were the sponsors of haven't done any work on?

Peter Stefanovic: You’re smart with numbers. Don’t you have an estimate?

Tim Wilson: Well, no, the Treasurer wants to go out there and have conversations about these things. He wants to hyper-ventilate to distract from his Baby Tax [interrupted]

Peter Stefanovic: The AFR is putting it at $15 billion today.

Tim Wilson: Well, that's their analysis. The reality is we have a government that is trying to distract from putting taxes on death, taxes on life, and now taxes on birth. They want to hyperventilate about this. I actually want to focus on how we're going to reduce their active inflation agenda, which is the reason Australians are going backwards. It's the reason that interest rates are a very serious risk at the end of the month of going up because the government continues to spend and stoke and has engaged in a game of interest rate chicken with the Reserve Bank.

Peter Stefanovic: Well, let's close on this, because I'm glad you brought that up because last night, the deputy RBA Governor was on the ABC, and he sort of leaned more than ever before into another rate rise coming. So, that'll be a fourth for the year. He puts it down to the conflict in the Middle East as well as the AI boom, as well as a shortage in supply. So, three different issues there, which are leading to a rate rise, a fourth rate rise this year. What do you make of that?

Tim Wilson: Well, the problem is the underlying inflation rate at 3.6%. It was high before Iran, it's high now, and if Iran ended tomorrow, it would continue to be high. The problem is government spending at a state and the Commonwealth level, which is continuing to engage in an active inflation agenda of stoking the inflation, taxing the inflation, then spending it again in a vicious cycle. Until the government pulls its belt in, as it's asking Australians to do, Australians will go backwards, interest rates will go up, it's smashing confidence and destroying both the wealth and the wages of the Australian community.

Peter Stefanovic: Tim Wilson, it's good to see you this morning. Appreciate it as always. We'll talk to you again soon.

[ENDS]