Tuesday, 19 May 2026

Transcript - Doorstop interview, Melbourne

Topics: Federal budget, small business, alcohol taxes

E&OE.....

Tim Wilson: Okay, I'm happy to go everyone's ready. We’ve just had a meeting with a whole bunch of small business owners who are getting whacked by this budget. The federal budget is now in complete disarray, the treasurer is pumping out every single number to make a case about why his budget makes and adds up. Today they released new modelling showing that the claim that the capital gains tax changes are somehow going to stack up and they’ve undermined their own budget. Today the treasurer’s released modelling that actually says his own budget is a lie. Their modelling says that inflation over the next few years is going to be 3%, their budget says it’s going to be 2.5%. This budget has been built on a house of broken promises. Every step of the way and they continue to spin as much as they can to try and sell what is now a budget in utter disarray. The Treasurer hasn’t done the work, the Treasurer doesn’t understand his own budget forecasts, and Australians are the ones paying the price. At our roundtable with small business people, they are the ones on the front of the axe that the Treasurer is going to take to the economy because he cannot control his spending habits. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer keep turning to the small businesses and households of the nation and saying that they should pull their belts in but they won’t do the same. Our embattled Treasurer doesn’t understand his budget, its consequences and now is putting out dodgy data to try and gaslight and deceive Australians because he cannot manage his own budget process. Claire.

Claire Chandler: Thanks Tim. Australia’s small business sector is saying to us very clearly that they just want a fair go. That’s what we heard at the roundtable that we conducted here in Melbourne this morning. Small business just wants a fair go and they feel that is not what they have been given by this Albanese government and Jim Chalmers' very bad budget. We know that Mr. Albanese, Dr. Chalmers promised numerous times to Australians and to Australian businesses before the last election that there would be no changes to capital gains tax, that there would be no changes to negative gearing. Not only have they broken those promises that they made countless times to Australians, but now they are pulling the rug out from underneath Australia’s small business sector. We heard feedback that businesses are not going to be able to operate in the same way because they don’t have the same certainty of the economy that they can invest in and give back to. Indeed, some of the business owners that we spoke with today were talking about potentially moving their businesses elsewhere or going out of business completely. The other feedback, of course, that we heard this morning is that it’s not fair to expect businesses to be operating in these uncertain conditions while government itself can’t get its own spending under control.

Journalist: So, Mark Butler has said that the government’s open to providing small businesses rollover relief to help them adjust to the changes to the trust laws. Does that go far enough?

Tim Wilson: The idea that the government is going to give small businesses who are struggling and they’re going to take half their business more debt as the answer to the problem fundamentally misunderstands what small businesses are arguing against, what small businesses are upset about. Small businesses are angry because the government is trying to take half of the value of their business. The idea that the government is going to offer small businesses more debt to manage the difficulties of the government coming and taking half their small business is absurd. The government simply isn’t listening to the self-starters of this nation who are turning around and saying the government doesn't have a right to take half of our business and just saying go into more debt to get there won’t solve it.

Journalist: So, what's the coalition’s plan to stop permanent residents from accessing some social services agreed to by the party room?

Tim Wilson: The decision was made by the leadership group as it normally is in these processes to make sure that we have a pathway where as people come to Australia they come, they commit and they contribute to building the future of our country.

Journalist: Your colleague, Senator Andrew McLachlan, says he’s concerned using terms like "mass migration" alienates migrant communities. Do you share those concerns?

Tim Wilson: I think everybody wants Australians, new Australians to come to this country to commit and to contribute to build our economic and social future of our country. What we want is a nation where everybody has a place and they’re able to be full participants in the Australian way of life.

Journalist: Many workers in Australia's business community have come from overseas, including China and India. Are you concerned that there might be backlash to the Coalition’s language and policies around migration?

Tim Wilson: Well I think those people who are small business owners in the country who come from overseas and they’ve come here, they’re committing here and they’re contributing here are living out exactly what we want to see. We don’t want to see new Australians set up for failure because they are dependent on welfare. We want them to stand up, to get ahead and to be able to back themselves in.

Journalist: Okay, just on the alcohol issues that we’re seeing in the report today. So, is Australia’s high alcohol taxes creating an incentive for the illicit alcohol market? We've seen in today’s drug and alcohol review that illicit alcohol sales are accounting for 90% of alcohol-related lost tax revenue for Australia.

Tim Wilson: So we know from this government’s stubborn and pig-ignorant attitude towards taxes, whether it's tobacco or alcohol, that it is leading to the burgeoning of illicit products and of course the growth of an illegal trade. Organized crime profit under bad Labor policies, and we’ve seen that in tobacco and we’re seeing that now in alcohol.

Journalist: So do you believe that the illegal alcohol market is going the same way that we’ve seen in previous years with tobacco?

Tim Wilson: We’ve seen very clearly in Victoria in this state that because of bad Labor policies that encourage and incentivize organized crime and taken advantage of it in tobacco and now it is being replicated in illicit alcohol because the incentives are there, they’ve built the distribution systems, and the government is undermining its own policy objectives.

Journalist: Just a question about the CGT consultation and timing on that. Do you have any indication on, you know, how quickly that process is going to happen or your thoughts on how quickly it should happen?

Tim Wilson: Well, the government should absolutely engage with the small businesses of the country as quickly as possible. They’re terrified at what the government is putting forward. But it’s clear that the government didn’t understand the impact of their tax changes in the lead up to the budget. They’ve now chucked in a consultation process to help navigate it, but in the meantime Australia’s small business owners have an uncertainty and a nervousness about their future because the government’s budget is in disarray. Thanks everyone.

Claire Chandler: Thank you very much.

[ENDS]