Tuesday, 16 June 2026

Transcript - Doorstop - Melbourne

Topics: Reserve Bank, interest rates, inflation, small business

E&OE...

Tim Wilson: Today is a very disappointing day for Australian households. The decision of the Reserve Bank to hold interest rates condemns the Albanese government's active inflation agenda. Because Australian households looking for relief have been condemned to continued and persistent interest rates, because the government simply cannot give up its spending addiction.

We know from the RBA's own statements that underlying and headline inflation, domestic inflation, continues to be a problem for the Australian economy. That's why they've kept interest rates where they are, and Australian households are now paying the price when they go to the supermarket and they get less in their red basket or their trolley. And of course, they're experiencing it in their interest rates and how much they're paying to service their mortgage.

Now more than ever, Australians need confidence and hope. And the decision today by the RBA is just another step along the road where Australians are looking at this government with despair. The Albanese government continues to stoke inflation, continues to tax inflation, and then continues to spend the inflation and repeat the cycle, and that's why Australian households are doing it so tough.

And even worse than that, they went to the last election promising fifty times over they wouldn't introduce a series of new tax measures on Australian households and small businesses. And today, as part of their two-day inquiry, which is designed to railroad the Australian people, silence their dissent or their difference of opinion, they won't even read all the submissions that have been made before the hearings. Their attempt—the Albanese government's attempt to continue to ram their higher tax agenda through the Australian community—while Australian small businesses are grasping for air, and they're angry, desperate. But even worse than that, the government doesn't even want to listen to them or hear from them.

And they know the full consequences of what the Albanese government is going to deliver. They know how much harder it is going to be, and they're watching record small business insolvencies around Australia right now. And the only response from the Albanese government is to tell them to sit down and get back in their place.
Australians deserve better. They need a sense of hope and aspiration for the future. They need to be confident and looking at the future because they believe their lives can be better—because the government is pulling in its belt, not just turning around to the people and telling them that they should pull in their belt. They need to be looking at the future with confidence because there's calmer inflation, which means that interest rates will come down, small businesses will be given room to breathe, and households will be given a chance to get back ahead.

We need an Australia where hard work pays off, Australians feel in control of their own lives, and they feel respected—not having their taxes handed to organized crime and to corruption that stokes inflation and increases interest rates on the Australian people.

[ENDS]