Monday, 19 October 2026

Topics: small business; Labor’s small business tax; Albanese government psychodrama; ATO credit card ban; GST; One Nation.

E&OE……………………..

Tim Wilson: Australian small businesses continue to struggle, and we know that they're hit by higher costs, higher inflation, rising interest rates and record low consumer confidence. What Australian small businesses need now more than ever is confidence and hope for the future. Yesterday we had the Albanese Government's Assistant Treasurer go out and say their higher taxes in their federal budget could lead to up to 60 per cent taxes on small business through trusts. The idea that the Albanese Government thinks small business needs 60 per cent taxes right now is outrageous. It's because the Albanese Government cannot control its spending addiction that it continues to stoke higher taxes and target small business specifically. We can't have small business becoming the target of the Albanese Government's unwillingness to kick its spending addiction. Small businesses are looking for hope at a time of record declines in consumer confidence and small business confidence. The answer the Albanese Government is giving to the small businesses of the nation that are struggling is ‘let them eat taxes’.

Well, we have a very different plan for small business in this country. We have a different plan that's focused on backing small business, repealing the taxes that the Albanese Government wants to introduce on small business, and to give them hope for a way forward. But right now, one of the things the Government can do to give small business more confidence is some clarity around the train wreck of their surcharge ban. Customers all across the country are going into cafes, into restaurants, or into shops and finding higher costs because of the Albanese Government's surcharge ban. So today we've created a poster that small businesses can download from standwithsmall.org that can send a message to the Prime Minister that higher surcharges are only pushing up prices and of course small businesses are being forced to absorb the cost, and it's being passed on to consumers. Small businesses can download the poster at standwithsmall.org and send a message to the Prime Minister and to their customers that we're sick and tired of higher costs on small business and sending them further backwards.

We know that the Albanese Government has been complicit in the ATO credit card ban. Yesterday we had the Assistant Treasurer admit that the credit card ban was something that the Albanese Government has been a participant in every step of the way from July. The cover-up that Jim Chalmers has tried to prosecute on the ATO credit card ban said that he only became aware of it in September. Well yesterday, the Assistant Treasurer let the cat out of the bag and admitted, conceded on national television they were participants in it since July, and they've thrown small businesses under the bus and gave them only eight hours' notice of something they had been planning and designing to execute since July. But the bigger issue, frankly, is this Government is at war with itself. It's engaged in a psychodrama of fights between the Prime Minister who is enjoying humiliating his Treasurer, and now we have the Assistant Treasurer humiliating the Treasurer as well. Why this Government is so focused on itself and its own internal division rather than the Australian community, and particularly small businesses, is beyond most of us. It's a realisation that the Albanese Government is only focused on feeding itself, and particularly around its own spending addiction. And the answer to all of that is to hit small businesses, to hit the Australian community with higher taxes in an environment where inflation continues to outstrip wages, we have consumer confidence collapsing, small business confidence collapsing, and the only answer for the Albanese Government is to turn around to Australians and small businesses and say ‘let them eat taxes’.

Journalist: On taxes, the Grattan Institute today has put forward an idea suggesting raising the GST to 15 per cent and saying it would raise about $76 billion a year, and of that $58 billion should be put towards cutting income taxes and boosting welfare payments. What's your take on that proposal? What do you think? Is that something that could be looked into?

Tim Wilson: We've already got a plan to reform taxation by lowering income taxes because at the moment higher taxes is part of the design of the Albanese active inflation agenda. What they do is they stoke inflation so they can then go and increase their tax take, tax inflation, and then spend inflation in a vicious cycle. Our Tax Back Guarantee is focused on making sure that people keep more of their money and inflation doesn't become the silent thief of Australians' hard-earned income just because the Albanese Government can't control its spending addiction.

Journalist: So, touching the GST, not a good idea?

Tim Wilson: We've said consistently that in the middle of a cost of living and a small business confidence crisis, the solution isn't to push people's heads under financial water. It's to lift it to give Australians the opportunity to breathe and to make sure that they can support themselves and their families.

Journalist: On another matter, a new One Nation cartoon has ridiculed Senator Jacqui Lambie and her medical condition. She's come out today saying it's spiteful and full of hatred. What's your take on it?

Tim Wilson: I haven't seen this cartoon, but the idea that you would mock somebody for their health condition is despicable and really reveals the true character of One Nation, and their focus is not on the Australian people.

[ENDS]