Saturday, 27 June 2026

Transcript - Doorstop, East Melbourne

Topics: Supermarkets, price gouging, One Nation, Liberal leadership, ISIS brides

E&OE...................

Tim Wilson: Once again, the Albanese government has failed the Australian community. Every time Australians go to the supermarket, they're getting less in their red basket or their trolley because of inflation. Today, we've had a measure that's been announced by the government as yet another piecemeal solution because they don't have an answer to their inflation addiction. The Coalition has led the conversation on cheaper prices at the supermarket through the announcement of a Mandatory Food and Grocery Code and also the instigation of a Supermarket Commissioner. Now, we've got piecemeal band-aid measures from the Albanese government to try and contain the upward price lift on inflation at the checkout. Unless the Albanese government gets its inflation addiction under control, Australians will pay more for supermarket groceries and fresh food in their red basket or their trolley. Every time the government continues its inflation addiction of stoking inflation, taxing inflation, then spending the inflation to create a vicious cycle, Australians will get less for their dollar. We need hope. Australians need hope. We need an economic pathway that focuses on backing Australians to get ahead. Our tax back guarantees explicitly focused on making sure when inflation takes more of your wages, that it's returned to Australians, so they're in control of their own financial freedom and destiny. Our Future Generations Fund and our windfall surplus arrangements are focused explicitly when there's a windfall from going to the Commonwealth, it goes towards paying back debt and empowering the next generation of Australians to be able to determine their own destiny. And this is the clear choice between the Labor Party and a Coalition government. The Labor Party stokes inflation and keeps pressure on households. We want to empower and let loose households to be able to live out their best lives. We believe that Australians are the best people to determine their own future. We believe households are doing better, families are doing better when they can go to the supermarket with confidence and not look at prices constantly rising because the Albanese government can't control its inflation addiction. Happy to take questions.

Journalist: [Inaudible - is this legislation enough to help Aussies who are obviously facing cost-of-living crisis?]

Tim Wilson: This legislation is a band-aid on the problem of the Albanese government's inflation addiction. The reason Australians are paying higher prices in their red basket or trolley is because the government keeps stoking inflation and making it harder for Australians to get ahead. Band-aids don't solve the root cause of the problem that Australian households are facing. This proposal is just another band-aid while the Albanese government stokes inflation, taxes inflation, and spends inflation, and makes sure it's harder for Australian households to get ahead.

Journalist: Do you think the big supermarkets will care about these laws?

Tim Wilson: Well, let's wait and see. We'll see the final details before the impact. But what we do know is that prices will be higher at supermarkets, at grocery stores, everywhere, until the Albanese government gets its inflation addiction under control because inflation impacts everyone, everywhere through higher prices, no matter the store.

Journalist: [Inaudible question on the fight against One Nation; Andrew Hastie comments]

Tim Wilson: Our task is to define a future that unites Australians and takes us forward as a country. We currently have a Labor government that is actively seeking to divide Australians and turn families against families and have stoke fights around the kitchen tables of the nation through their budget. We've got other political parties on the far right that are seeking to divide Australians as their pathway to political success. Our focus must be on how we unite Australians, we take our country forward together, and build a better future for everybody. That's an Australia where hard work pays off, where Australians feel in control of their own lives and they feel a basic sense of respect, particularly from their government. Every other political party is focused on dividing Australians. We are focused on how we empower Australians to have control of their own lives and be able to build out their own success.

Journalist: [Inaudible question on Liberal leadership]

Tim Wilson: Our focus in the lead-up to the next election is going to make sure that we're a united team that can go on and prosecute the case. And it's not going to come down to one person, it's going to come down to all of us. We need a Coalition-led opposition to take government that is going to materially improve Australians' lives. That's a responsibility on everybody. It's a responsibility on me on the economy and the budget. It's a responsibility on Andrew Hastie to build out our economic resilience. It's a responsibility of Melissa McIntosh to make sure that we have a sustainable National Disability Insurance Scheme. It's a responsibility on Senator Andrew Bragg to make sure we have the housing policy, so first home buyers can get into the market and aren't being knee-capped like they are in the Albanese government. It's a responsibility on the Leader to unite us and to make sure that we're part of a team that builds out our future. Together, we are going to build a better future for every Australian and that's the pathway that we need all the way up to the next election because this next election is not about us and it's not about Labor and it's not about other parties. It's actually about the Australian people and how we can build a better future for them.

Journalist: [Inaudible – Sussan Ley – Angus Taylor – 9 months]

Tim Wilson: The focus in the lead-up to the next election is how we have a united team because that's what Australians want to improve their lives. I know the media likes to ask lots of other questions about things at different times. But our focus must be, for the sake of the country, a better future for the Australian people. There's never been a time in my adult life where I've seen the Australian people so let down and betrayed by their own government. A budget that is built on a house of broken promises, where we have a Prime Minister that has gone to an election and said in his own words 50 times over he wouldn't introduce new taxes, then got elected, betrayed the Australian people, and has knee-capped renters, knee-capped first home buyers, knee-capped investors, and now knee-capped retirees. That is not a sustainable way for Australia to go forward because it's eating into the equity and the trust in our political system and our future prosperity. And our focus as a team must be to make sure that we defeat that government and build a better future because Australians are crying out for change. What they're crying out for is a sense of hope and opportunity where a future government will bleed and define the future to build out a better Australia for everyone. And that is to see a change in the end of the Albanese government and the election of a Coalition Taylor-led government.

Journalist: Just on a different topic again for me. What's your reaction yesterday to the ISIS-bride being bailed in Sydney yesterday?

Tim Wilson: We should follow the full processes of law. But I think a lot of Australians like me are very concerned about Islamic terrorist sympathisers being out in the community. And they want the highest assurance from our police officers and from our government that the community is going to be protected because we know the engagements and the activities that have gone on overseas and we don't want to import foreign conflict into our community and into our country. We've seen with horrors of events of what's occurred in places like Bondi, what happens when there isn't that sense of safety and urgency in our security and we need to make sure that continues.

[ENDS]