Sunday, 31 May 2026

Transcript - Doorstop interview, South Melbourne

Topics: Federal budget, Labor's taxes, housing prices, Australian economy

E&OE....

Tim Wilson: Well, the government’s budget train wreck continues to unfold. Today, the Minister for Housing has said that she’s not going to deliver more houses and can’t commit to even the promises made in the budget. The Treasurer has been out there undermining his own budget, now his housing minister is undermining the budget because the government simply can’t deliver the big promises and boasts they make. Australians are going to have fewer houses at higher prices. It’s going to make it harder for young Australians to get into the market, and this government simply does not have an answer to how they’re going to build the housing stock Australians need.

Journalist: Tim, you talked about the higher prices, we’ve seen prices flatlining and potentially trending down.

Tim Wilson: Well, the government, by their own admission in their own budget documents, is seeing fewer houses being built and that’s been confirmed by the housing minister today. There is absolutely, the markets are unsettled about investment at the moment, but when you build fewer houses but you keep pumping in more people, the government’s own budget numbers show 90,000 people they’re going to over-shoot their migration target. It’s only going to make it harder for young Australians to rent or to buy.

Journalist: Just, so I had a look at the auction clearance rates today and they are, clearance rates, I think about 58% for yesterday, which is low, it’s not super low, but it was just the number of auctions, it’s about a thousand, which is I think about 200 less than it was last week. It’s about 500 less than it was at the same time last year. So, clearly there’s a lot of people now removed themselves from the market. You assume they’re investors. Does that suggest that there was in fact quite a distortion in the market and that now young first home buyers have got a better crack at it?

Tim Wilson: Well, Labor’s toxic taxes are making it harder for young Australians to buy their own home. We know that they’re targeting first home deposits that are being invested, so first home buyers are less likely to have the full money available to them to buy a deposit, to buy a home with a deposit. We know that the changes to tax regimes the government has put forward is undermining confidence, and so you can’t jump to assumptions beyond pointing out that Labor’s toxic taxes are undermining young Australians to be able to go and buy their first home.

Journalist: If auction rates are down and clearance rates are down, significantly down, what does that tell you about what’s happening with the market?

Tim Wilson: What it tells us is Labor’s toxic taxes have acted as a sledgehammer on the confidence in the market, confidence in investment and confidence in the future of the country. Unfortunately, the government is expert at running the Australian economy down and reducing confidence for Australians.

Journalist: What do you consider to be the biggest determiner of house prices?

Tim Wilson: Well, the biggest determiner of house prices is ultimately going to be supply and demand. And what we know is under Labor’s budget there will be fewer houses built, and we also know that their own budget estimates say they’re going to exceed their own migration targets by 90,000. So more people buying fewer homes.

Journalist: The flattening of house prices, isn’t that a good thing? I mean, if house prices keep rising at the rate they were, wouldn’t that continue to lock young people out?

Tim Wilson: Well, the question is how are we empowering young Australians to be able to buy their first home? The government through their toxic taxes is coming along and taxing higher first home deposits that are invested. So all that’s happening is a government is kneecapping young Australians from their capacity to be able to buy into the market at a time where the government admits, even by their own data, there’s going to be fewer houses built.

Journalist: So how do the toxic, how do the taxes affect young home buyers?

Tim Wilson: Labor’s toxic taxes can double the tax rate on first home deposits invested. And we know that so many

Journalist: In the stock market?

Tim Wilson: Well, wherever they, whether young people invest in crypto, ETFs, or in the stock market, whichever way they’re investing.

Journalist: Or in a term deposit?

Tim Wilson: Wherever there’s capital gains, Labor is going to target those taxes, target those investments harder with their toxic taxes. And we know young Australians invest in ETFs, in crypto, in shares, and so their first home deposits are going to be taxed higher under Labor and kneecap their chance to be able to buy their first home.

Journalist: But there aren’t many of those. So how..

Tim Wilson: That’s a ridiculous statement.

Journalist: Is it?

Tim Wilson: Yes. Young Australians increasingly

Journalist: As a proportion of young people saving for a house, what proportion of them get capital gains?

Tim Wilson: There are numbers out there that show that nearly 85% of young Australians are investing their first home deposit to be able to get ahead.

Journalist: In capital gains producing savings?

Tim Wilson: In crypto, in ETFs, in shares, all of those things attract the capital gains tax. Politely, this is where the media doesn’t understand the full consequences of Labor’s toxic taxes and how it’s kneecapping young Australians to be able to invest their first home deposit and put themselves in a position to get ahead.

Journalist: Okay, sorry. So it’s 80% of first home buyers are investing in capital gains producing?

Tim Wilson: 85% of young Australians are investing in different investments, whether it’s crypto, whether it’s ETFs, whether it’s shares, to be able to save to get ahead. Of course, because they tend to be buying their homes later, they tend to be likely to be investing their first home deposit and that is going to be kneecapped by the toxic taxes of the Labor government.

Journalist: Okay. On the capital gains tax, if there’s a carve out for tech and startups, if there’s a raising of the exemption threshold above two million, would the Coalition still vote against those proposals?

Tim Wilson: The government has to go to the Australian people and put forward these changes to tax. They went to the last election, by the Prime Minister’s own admission said 50 times over, that they wouldn’t introduce these taxes. This is a bad faith budget, and there’s no way we can support changes when the government hasn’t made the case, they haven’t taken to the Australian people, when we now have a liar in the lodge and they’ve betrayed Australians. The Prime Minister is a fake when it comes to his commitments at the election. He says one thing and does something different after.

Journalist: So it’s a no?

Tim Wilson: So it’s resolutely a no that when the government took to an election 50 times over by their own admission not to introduce these taxes and then got on the other side and now they’re going to pass them.

Journalist: The quotes from your book were raised against you in question time last week. That’s quite a turnaround. How do you respond to that?

Tim Wilson: Well, the Treasurer clearly doesn’t understand my book because it talks about lower taxes, and his solution is to increase taxes. So, we can all selectively quote whatever we want. It does not break a fundamental. The Treasurer went to the last election with the Prime Minister and said 50 times over they wouldn’t introduce these new taxes. Democratic legitimacy is kind of important for building trust. That’s why people are saying we have a liar in the lodge.

Journalist: But I mean the quote is that capital gains from the appreciation of holding assets taxed at half the applied rate effectively entrenches the benefit of having and holding assets which can only exist if you establish there is no intergenerational justice.

Tim Wilson: Yes, we should lower income taxes.

Journalist: That’s not particularly talking about capital gains tax.

Tim Wilson: It’s talking about the relationship between income tax and capital gains tax. And my solution is to get income tax down, Jim Chalmers’ solution is to get capital gains tax up.

[ENDS]