Thursday, 4 June 2026

Transcript - Doorstop, Mural Hall Parliament House

Topics: Labor's taxes, housing, Senate enquiry

Tim Wilson: Well, Australian households are doing it tough right now, and they have just been told by the Albanese government that they are going to get $255 billion worth of higher taxes. The Albanese government have voted 11 times against lower taxes for Australians in the Parliament. They've voted 11 times against amendments which could lower the tax burden and reduce income taxes on Australians. Instead, they ran and protected $255 billion of explicit and stealth tax increases by their own estimates and their own numbers. Australians don't need more taxes. We have record small business insolvencies. Households have experienced the largest decline in living standards in the developed world, and the only response the Albanese government has is to add more taxes onto households, onto small businesses, sending Australians further backwards.

Journalist: The Coalition ultimately, this morning, has had to vote against those income tax amendments. That was again, on the back of the last election. Do you think there'd be any repercussions this time around?

Tim Wilson: The Albanese government tried to offer Australians 250 bucks. The trade-off was to impose $255 billion worth of higher taxes on Australian households. I think $255 billion is more than $250, and Australians know just how much betrayal there has come from this government, how many broken promises there have been, and how you can't trust this government and how they're going to continue to increase taxes on the Australian community.

Journalist: [Inaudible question on negotiations with the Greens in the Senate]

Tim Wilson: Well, negotiations are dynamic, but it's quite clear with broken promises from the Prime Minister and the government, and of course, the legislation giving huge carve-outs to the Treasurer to basically act like he is a sort of king of the tax system, that the Greens are rightly alarmed, as the Coalition is rightly alarmed. And so, we're going to apply maximum pressure and leverage because we need to remember, the Australian people did not vote for these taxes. They weren't taken to the last election. They haven't had endorsement, and now the government is trying to shut down and silence Australians from raising their voice and their concerns about their impact.

Journalist: Tim, you want housing to be affordable. Is that achievable without house prices coming down?

Tim Wilson: Well, it's achievable by making sure that incomes are rising. Under the Albanese government, household incomes have gone backwards, and that's part of the problem. We don't have a pathway that encourages—and now it's even worse after these tax changes—we don't have a pathway where incomes are going to rise, where people invest in growing the future of the Australian economy, or even to build more housing. Budget documents show 35,000 fewer houses will be built, and they're going to overshoot their migration targets by 90,000. So, no matter which way it is, we're going to see a more challenging environment for first-home buyers. The Treasury Secretary has now admitted this. We have seen so much evidence where the government has got it wrong, and Australians are going to pay the price.

Journalist: Would you like to see house prices go up or down?

Tim Wilson: I'd like to see market prices be at the market rate. There is not one property market. There's lots of different property markets. We know in mining communities, they go up and they go down. We know in other parts of the country, they can go up and down at different times. The Coalition's focus is to make sure that first-home buyers have a pathway to buy their first home. What we know under the government's 5% home deposit scheme, first home deposit scheme, is it put upward pressure on buying a first home, which is just knee-capping Australians again so the government can get itself out of a political problem, or as they like to call it, changing their mind.

Journalist: Just on that scheme, we heard last night 51,000 non-citizens, permanent residents are access—have access to that scheme. Only one of them have had to default. Why is the Coalition so concerned that non-citizens are accessing that scheme?

Tim Wilson: Our focus is on building the future strength of Australia for the Australian people. That's what Australians want us to do, and they don't want, necessarily, benefits going to people who are not citizens. Our focus is on how we build that long-term future of the country. We want people to come here, to commit to Australia, and to contribute to Australia.

Journalist: Senator David Pocock has suggested that he wants to see the bills split in the Senate, other crossbenchers are making similar noises around. Do you think that the Liberal, the Coalition, and the crossbenchers can come to an arrangement to force the government to split the legislation? And if so, would you—would you like to see the Coalition vote for those [inaudible]?

Tim Wilson: Well, I won't prejudge what's done in the Senate, but in the House, we tried to split the bills so that Labor's toxic taxes, which they didn't take to the Australian people, were removed from the bill and voted on separately from other measures. So, we'd absolutely be open to reducing taxes on Australian households, being able to vote for that, and not for Labor's toxic taxes they didn't take to the Australian community.

Journalist: The inquiry in the Senate, would you like that query to go longer than the few weeks it's currently scheduled?

Tim Wilson: Let's be very clear about this. The Australian people did not vote for the tax measures put before the parliament in the House and now the Senate. I absolutely want Australians to have their voice in this process because they didn't have it at the ballot box. The Prime Minister is now trying to silence and censor Australians from having their say against the taxes they didn't vote for. We've got so many stories coming through the notthetax.com.au website of people telling us what the impact is. Last night I got a message from a small business owner, and they said since the budget, they've seen a lot of capital go out of their business because investors have decided it's not worth it. He's now had to lay off their 10 staff, and they're now questioning whether they can keep going on. This is the wrecking ball that the Prime Minister is injecting into our economy through his budget and his higher taxes that he doesn't even have the guts or the courage to take to the Australian community, and now he wants to censor and silence the Australian people from speaking out about it.

Journalist: … the Greens want a longer inquiry on the NDIS changes. Is that the sort of thing that the Greens, Labor, Liberal, could come to an agreement on?

Tim Wilson: Well, we're absolutely looking at maximum leverage to make sure that Australians have their say. The Prime Minister's bullying attempts to try and censor and silence Australians from influence and a say in our own national parliament is a disgrace. We know he went to an election promising to do one thing and do another, and then did another after he was re-elected. Is it really too much to expect that Australians are able to have some say into their democratic processes? Clearly not under this Prime Minister.

Journalist: Are you concerned by this current slide in property prices? If it continues, are you worried about young Australians who have taken up a 5-6% loan being pushed into negative equity? Is that current situation something to concern you?

Tim Wilson: Well, I'm absolutely concerned about multiple things. I'm concerned about young Australians who bought a home and experiencing negative equity. I'm concerned about Jim Chalmers' active inflation agenda, which puts up pressure on inflation and, of course, on interest rates. So, young Australians are going to find it harder to service their debt. And I'm very concerned about a lack of confidence in the economy, which is why people aren't investing to build the future. But this is the design of the economy Labor built. This is what they want, to crash the economy because they think it will somehow deliver better dividends. We've got the New Zealand Finance Minister going out there at the moment telling Australian businesses to head across the ditch, abandon our country, and people are saying actually, we might just do that. I can't understand what this government thinks they're doing. They're betraying the Australian community, they're knee-capping investment and economic opportunity, and they are not building up the growth that Australians desperately need.

Journalist: Just on the Treasurer's overreach on the legislation that you were talking about today as well, if you were to become government and you were Treasurer, do you think those powers would allow you to reverse the CGT without any additional oversight?

Tim Wilson: We'd have to look at all of that in a technical capacity because some of us actually do believe in democracy, elections, process, making sure legislation works properly. But we made it clear that we're going to repeal these toxic taxes and those that undermine the Australian community and investment in the future of the growth of the Australian economy.

Journalist: Can you talk about different housing markets? Do you think that standard entry-level prices for first home buyers, should go down in price?

Tim Wilson: Well, what I don't think they should do is be actively stoked to increase by programs like the government's 5% home deposit scheme. We've seen that as a consequence. What we need to do is back young Australians, have better wages to get jobs that create opportunity where they can save, invest, and move forward, and be in a position to buy their first home. Unfortunately, the government has decided to knee-cap young Australians on multiple levels. Whether it's renting—and they've openly admitted, the Treasury Secretary today has admitted that rents are going to increase. Whether it is by the fact that their tax changes will lead to fewer houses, 35,000 fewer houses. Or, of course, then going on and attacking the very pathway for economic growth and opportunity, and they're overshooting their migration target by 90,000 people. So, we're going to have lower supply and higher demand, and we all know where that ends.

[ENDS]