Monday, 29 June 2026

Transcript - Doorstop, House of Representatives

Topics: Federal budget, clearance rates, social media ban, Liberal leadership

E&OE………

Tim Wilson: Its now 7 weeks since the federal budget and it continues to unravel at an incredible pace. The Treasurer yesterday in his train wreck interview on Insiders was designed to finally clean up the problems of the federal budget. It did the exact reverse. When asked about the widow's tax, he avoided, deflected, and couldn't answer basic questions about how the government was going to repeal it. They had amendments in the Senate. They told the Parliament of Australia that they would amend the legislation, amend the law to make sure that there wasn't a widow's tax, and of course, they passed the budget. They're now finding ways to get out of their responsibility, and they've deceived the Parliament of Australia to pass their budget. This is a very serious problem. You cannot trust what the federal Treasurer says. You cannot trust what the Prime Minister says. And all the ministers run interference to defend their unwillingness to honour their trust with the Australian people.

Journalist: So what do you make of Cotality's numbers this morning that suggest that auction clearance rates have fallen further around the country, and how worried should we be about the impact of tax changes on that sector?

Tim Wilson: Well, Jim Chalmers seems to want to crash the housing economy. I mean, this is very worrying. We have a situation where confidence has collapsed. The Treasurer and the Prime Minister are directly attacking the foundations of Australia's economic prosperity and growth. Our confidence as a people is clearly down, and as a consequence, we're seeing less people with confidence to invest in their future. That's never a good sign. If you want people to be able to get ahead, we need young Australians to be able to buy their first home, but more importantly, we need more housing because there's confidence and because people have confidence that they're going to be able to make a buck.

Journalist: Angus Taylor's popularity has hit new lows in two polls. Some are suggesting that his leadership is unsafe. What would you say to them?

Tim Wilson: I think that's a complete distraction. We need to make sure that we're ending the corruption, we're stopping inflation, we're cutting taxes, and we're backing small business. And what we need is a government that is focused on the blue liberal horizon of hope because Australians deserve better than a government who seems to have perfected the art of deceiving the Australian people.

Journalist: So why are his numbers in the polls as bad as they are? How do you explain that?

Tim Wilson: I think the focus of the Australian people is their anger with their government, and as a consequence, they're looking around and trying to make sure that there's an alternative. There's more work to be done and no one's trying to pretend otherwise. But if we don't end the corruption, if we don't stop inflation, if we don't cut taxes, and if we don't back small business, we're going to have a continuation of the problems Australia faces right now.

Journalist: Will you back the social media changes that the government's bringing before Parliament this week and hopes to have passed by Thursday night?

Tim Wilson: We will wait and see what the legislation says before we make a final decision. But what we know is the government has made a complete hash of this social media ban. They went around parading and punching the air saying we're the first in the world, but in practice, what it has been is giant loopholes and Swiss cheese-style holes that's meant that we've had a huge number of people who, and minors who continue to use social media despite the rules.

Journalist: It’s not working, right?

Tim Wilson: It’s not working, but more importantly, they're now doing a patch-up job like they're doing a patch-up job with their budget. Everything this government does needs a massive patch-up job because they’re all about the headline, not about the outcome.

[ENDS]