Friday, 15 May 2025

Transcript - Doorstop interview, Perth Western Australia

E&OE...

Senator Dean Smith: Welcome, my name's Senator Dean Smith, I'm the assistant shadow minister to the shadow treasurer and the assistant shadow minister for the cost of living. Special thanks to Ben and Bec for inviting us into their home tonight to share, you know, their story so far about planning and saving for, uh, a home of their own, but more particularly how those plans were kneecapped on Tuesday night as a result of the decisions in Labor's federal budget. I'm going to invite Ben to share his experience and then invite Tim Wilson to make some comments. Very, very warm welcome to the shadow treasurer, his first visit to Western Australia since becoming the shadow treasurer. I was just sharing with Tim, uh, a particularly West- a unique West Australian cost of living experience. And that is that in Western Australia, we are experiencing some of the most pressing cost of living challenges of any state, uh, in Australia. Recent ABS CPI data shows that cost of living pressures here in Western Australia, particularly in Perth, are the highest of any Australian capital city, uh, peaking at 27% just recently. Important figure when compared to just 18% which is the average weekly earning increases that West Australians have experienced. So a surprising story for many people who come to Western Australia just to realize how pressing those cost of living pressures are. Now invite Ben to sort of share his personal experience in regards to the damaging effect that Tuesday night's budget has had on him and his plans.

Ben: Thanks, Dean. So my partner and I have been saving for about 12 months now to buy a home, live that Australian dream, and we've been doing this like most Gen Z, uh, people in Gen Z, we've been doing this not just by saving in a savings account, but also by investing. That's our nest egg that we're going to use to buy a home and when these announcement happened- these announcements happened on Tuesday, as Dean said, it just feels like we're being kneecapped. We know that house prices are going to continue to go up. We know that it feels like a, uh, spit in the face when, uh, negative geared houses are being grandfathered in and yet we're going to be taxed more. It just feels like buying a home is further and further out of reach due to these changes.

Tim Wilson MP: Well, firstly, thank you so much to Ben and Bec for having us in their lovely home. Uh, and thank you, Senator Dean Smith, a long-standing friend for welcoming me to the West. I've been here, uh, before since the last election. It's wonderful to be back and I'll be back very shortly as well, uh, because the West is a very important spiritual heartland for a large chunk of the country for what we actually want the rest of the nation to be. But thank you, Ben and Bec. Today we've heard a story of- the untold story, uh, of the budget that the government wants to whitewash. Young Australians are investing their first home deposits more than ever. Data shows that 85% of Gen Zs are investing their first home deposits so they can get ahead. This government simply doesn't understand the Australian economy or how young Australians are choosing to invest to get ahead. And on Tuesday night under this budget from the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, young Australians were kneecapped in their strategy to be able to save their first home deposit. And we've heard from Ben exactly what that means. It means they have to delay buying their first home in a runaway market. It means they have to save longer because the government and the taxman is coming along and saying "Your first home deposit is ours, not yours". That's why young Australians have woken up to this budget and its consequences. That sense of kneecapping comes from the government thinking their priorities matter more than young Australians' priorities to get ahead. And even more distressingly, that while the government is turning around and saying to Australians "Pull your belt in," the government will not do the same. Ben has rightly pointed out, uh, that there's a series of grandfathering measures which of course young Australians are locked out from. And that's why there's such a sense of betrayal, disappointment from young Australians from this budget because they can see that they're the ones, their heads are on the chopping block of the Albanese government's fifth budget.

Journalist: What about rents? Your party has always been talking about rents. This is going to be, you know, the changes to the CGT is a precursor of giving landlords excuses to increase their rents and all.

Tim Wilson MP: Well, the government's own budget documents show that there will be 35,000 homes fewer built under this budget and these new changes in tax, and that rents are going to increase as a consequence of these taxes. What we know is that even under the arrangements that are put in this budget, young Australians will pay higher rents as they're trying to save for their deposit. The treasurer is then coming to double the tax rate in some cases on young Australians who invest their deposit, and then they're going to compete in a runaway market later and at higher prices with fewer houses.

Journalist: Uh, the Coalition has promised $22 billion to hand back taxes to workers. What are you going to cut to pay for that?

Tim Wilson MP: We've said all along that we're going to cut the fraud and corruption that exists in the system. The Federal Labor government, working through the Victorian government, my home state, has handed $15 billion to organized crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel. And in this federal budget, they've given another $3.8 billion towards a project where it's known that criminal gangs, bikie gangs, and organized crime operate. We've said very clearly that we want to get rid of the phantom enrollments in child care, which is the fraud that sits at the heart of the child care system. So we're focused on making sure that the taxes of honest Australians, earned honestly and paid honestly, doesn't end up in the hands of fraudsters, corruption, and organized crime.

Journalist: Will NDIS be looked at as well?

Journalist: Sorry, can you both- Sorry.

Journalist: Is this uncosted nonsense, as Labor's described it?

Tim Wilson MP: It's very cute. I mean, uh, by the treasurer's own admission, he has an intention to increase taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. His secret agenda, uh, is to increase taxes by the hundreds of billions of dollars, or he's made up uncosted nonsense. We've costed our plan. We will focus on how we deliver it, but one of the biggest issues is this government has an active inflation agenda. They continue to stoke inflation, which strips away any of the benefits from the tax cuts that they have offered previously, in this budget, and that's why we've taken the path of saying "No more stealing of young Australians' incomes, Jim".

Journalist: Will NDIS be looked at as well on- again?

Tim Wilson MP: Uh, well absolutely look at any pathway to cut out fraud and corruption in the NDIS. We'll wait and also see whether the government actually delivers its promised changes. The state governments have already flagged that they're not convinced that they'll deliver them or they'll support the measures. So we'll look at these things in time, but part of the challenge is we have so little confidence that this government is going to take NDIS fraud and corruption seriously.

Journalist: Using a different PBO tool available to calculate income tax policy, it appears the Coalition's tax index- indexation would actually cost $35 billion over the first four years. Was your policy costed by the PBO?

Tim Wilson MP: So our policy was costed looking at the reality of, uh, where our income tax is, and we will continue to, as the budget numbers evolve, we will continue to evolve and look at our numbers and release full costings in the lead-up to the election. I mean, there are plenty of ways you can cost numbers. Our focus is- is based on the numbers that we have today.

Journalist: Just want to ask you briefly, do you see that this will be reversed when it comes to CGT or the changes? Because it- they tried it before a while ago. Do you think- do you want to bet your money on whether they're going to change it back in two years' time?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, our objective is to make sure that these changes do not come into law. And stories like Ben and Bec’'s, uh, are a really good example of the unintended consequence, uh, of these tax changes. Overnight, it's been revealed that there is a death tax component to the federal budget that they tried to keep under wraps, sneak in. It's like an Easter egg at the heart of the budget and, uh, it's now been revealed that there will be a death tax under the Albanese government. And yesterday in parliament, we asked was it- did he have a plan, uh, to introduce a death tax, would he rule one out? And he refused to do so. We now know why: Anthony Albanese had a death tax in his budget on Tuesday night.

[ENDS]