Saturday, 20 June 2026

Transcript - Doorstop, Brighton East Victoria

Topics:  Labor’s budget backflip, Labor’s bad-faith budget, NDIS, fuel excise, biosecurity, bird flu

E&OE......

Tim Wilson: The Albanese Government’s budget train wreck continues to unfold. They have made a series of carve-outs this week that have done nothing to grow the economic pie, support Australian small business, or back Australians to get ahead.

The Government is at war with the Australian people and their future ambitions for themselves and their families. The question is: whose side are the Greens on?

The Albanese Government has declared war on the Australian people and their ambitions and the question for the Greens is whose side are they on? Are they on the side of a government that is punching down at the Australian people, or are the Greens going to be on the side of Australians having their say and their voice?

What we have seen in the past 24 hours is clear evidence, from The Australian article today, the government’s budget is backing in big business and established interests while it penalises young Australians who want to get ahead, the self-starters of the country who are backing themselves to grow the economy and create a pathway for growth for every Australian.

The Government’s budget continues to divide the Australian community between those who have and older Australians, and the younger Australians and self-starters of the nation who it is leaving behind.

The Greens now face a choice. They can support a continued inquiry into this Government’s divisive budget, or they can silence and censor the Australian people with the Government.

The Greens should be standing up and calling for a longer inquiry, rather than protecting big business and the few against the many.

The Australian people did not vote for these new taxes or the budget that was introduced by the Albanese Government. The Australian people have not had their say.

The question for the Greens is: are they going to allow Australians a voice in this conversation, or are they going to side with the Albanese Government to bully and silence the Australian people?

Happy to take your questions.

Journalist: Tim, can you just turn a light on where the Coalition’s negotiations with the Greens are at?

Tim Wilson: We continue to have an open dialogue in the hope the Greens will come to their senses and give the Australian people a voice.

The reality at the moment is the Greens seem to be more interested in doing dirty deals with Labor to shut down and silence the Australian people on the budget.

Now is their time for choosing. The Greens have a choice: do they want to back the Australian people to have their say on the taxes Australians did not vote for, or are they going to work with the Government to silence and censor Australians from having a voice in our nation’s Parliament?

Journalist: So that sounds like it has stalled a little.

Tim Wilson: Conversations remain ongoing because we are focused on making sure the voice that Australians were denied at the election can be had now.

The question is for the Greens: are they going to back the Government, or are they going to back the voice of the Australian people?

It is quite clear the Greens are looking at tricky deals with the Albanese Government to silence and censor Australians. We hope they come to their senses, they back the Australian people rather than backing big business interests.

Journalist: On NDIS legislation, where does the Coalition actually stand on this? You have called for a long time for the NDIS to be more sustainable, but now your shadow minister, Melissa McIntosh, is unclear on whether or not you are going to support the legislation. Where is the Coalition thinking on that?

Tim Wilson: The Coalition has always believed that fixing the NDIS means targeting the fraud and corruption in the system, not targeting the clients.

That is why we are happy to support an extension of the inquiry into the NDIS, because it gives a pathway for Australians to have their say and for the unintended consequences of the Albanese Government’s approach to be heard.

Just like the Government is, in its budget, seeking to censor and silence the voices of Australians on the budget, they are seeking to censor and silence the voices of some of the most vulnerable in our community in their proposals for the NDIS.

Journalist: On a couple of other things: should the Government extend the fuel excise discount?

Tim Wilson: The fuel excise discount should be extended based on what occurs in Iran and the follow through consequences.

But let’s be very clear about this: the Government continues to say Australia have more fuel in our country now than at the beginning of the crisis. If more fuel is available, prices should be coming down and there should be no need to do so.

Whether the Government is actually being honest with the Australian people and we know their appetite for lying to the Australian people, is going to be based on whether there is a justification to extend it based on events overseas.

Journalist: Just finally, Pauline Hanson is in the papers today calling on the Government to provide her with some AFP security, after receiving a lot of pretty violent threats. How concerned are you by what seems to be a rise in politicians being threatened?

Tim Wilson: There has been a long-term and disturbing rise in threats against people in public life. Unfortunately, that includes myself, and I have no doubt it includes others as well.

It shows you the importance of having a calm and measured debate that seeks to unite the country.

The problem we have is the Albanese Government is seeking to divide the country. We have an equal and opposite reaction from One Nation trying to divide the country.

The only pathway forward is one that brings Australians together and gets them to work towards a better future for every Australian: the election of a Coalition Government.

Journalist: Similar track to the last question, just on the NDIS negotiations: would it be a worry if those negotiations do end up delaying the passage of that bill, given how much the NDIS is costing the federal budget?

Tim Wilson: Labor has fought any attempt to reform the NDIS and remove the fraud and corruption every step of the way. So the cost implications continue and have been around for a long time. Even worse than that, the Albanese Government’s approach has been more to target clients than it has been to target the fraud and corruption in the system.

But we need to make sure that Australians have ownership of the decisions that are made by the nation’s Parliament.

When the Government goes to an election, lies to the Australian people, says they won’t introduce taxes 50 times over, and then betrays the Australian people in its first budget, you end up in a situation where Australians do not have the capacity to have their say and their voice in the process.

That is very important because we have to build a country that takes everybody forward together, not simply seeks to divide. As the Labor Party seeks to do, as other parties seek to do, we need to unite Australians and build a country where hard work pays off, Australians are in control of their own lives, and they feel a basic sense of respect.

Journalist: So, is the Coalition likely to vote against that NDIS legislation, despite the fact that when the Coalition was in government you were also looking to make cuts to the cost of the NDIS?

Tim Wilson: Well, this comes down to the dirty deal that is being done between Labor and the Greens.

The Greens seem to want to silence the voices of Australians in any parliamentary process, except when it neatly suits them.

Let’s wait and see what legislation finishes before we make declarations about how we are going to vote.

The most important thing is that Australians have ownership of the issues that go through the Parliament of Australia, not get silenced or censored by a government that is disinterested in respecting the Australian people, where they are building a country where hard work simply does not pay off and Australians have less control over their own lives.

Journalist: And just on the CGT negotiations, is there any scenario where the Coalition would vote in favour of that particular bill if there was some kind of agreement reached with the Labor Party?

Tim Wilson: The only pathway where we could support changes is if they were taken to the Australian people before the last election, and the Government was open and honest with the Australian people.

They have already betrayed the Australian people. They have broken trust and lied to the Australian people.

It is impossible to support changes to the tax system off the back of 50 times repeated lies.

Journalist: Just a bit of a curveball here: bird flu. It looks like it has reached the Australian mainland. How much of a concern is that?

Tim Wilson: Of course, any biosecurity risk is a concern because of its implications for our agricultural sector. We need to remain cautious and take prudent measures. We would like to be kept informed by the Government.

[ENDS]