Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Topics: trusts legislation; small business; inflation; Angie Bell.

E&OE……………………..

Tim Wilson: Today, the Treasurer has introduced his legislation to impose massive new taxes on Australia's small businesses and trusts legislation. The Federal Treasurer continues to run his train wreck budget through the Australian economy, and we know the consequences of his new tax on small businesses. We know that it's going to have around $13.3 billion of additional compliance costs for small business to adjust. We know that it's only going to raise about $4.5 billion in revenue. So, what we have is a massive new tax, but it's eclipsed by the massive cost of compliance, and Australians who run small businesses are worried about whether this new tax is going to hit them. In the next coming weeks and months, they're going to be going off and seeing their financial advisers, because it's so complicated, and they're going to incur massive costs, around $50,000 each in cost for small business just to know whether Jim Chalmers' new taxes are going to apply to them and their small business. What we know is the government consistently has demonstrated they don't know what they're doing. Since the Federal Budget and their announcements in May, they've had constant backflips and overturns, and of course, the Prime Minister has continued to humiliate his Treasurer in the implementation of his legislation because the Treasurer is completely out of his depth. He does not understand the impact of what he is doing, and the impact is going to be felt by Australian small businesses that are already struggling. Struggling under the weight of taxes, struggling under the weight of collapsing consumer confidence, and of course in an environment of record small business insolvencies. What Australian small businesses need right now is economic hope. All the Albanese government has to offer is higher taxes and to kneecap them every step of the way, and even worse than that, the personal differences of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are now on full display. It's quite clear that the priorities of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer is their personal vendettas against each other, rather than a focus on how to grow the economy and back Australians to get ahead. This is a disastrous time for the government to introduce new taxes on the Australian people and particularly small businesses. But the priorities of the Albanese government are clear. It's a fight between Jim Chalmers and the Prime Minister, and small businesses and households are thought about last.

Journalist: [inaudible question on addressing fairness between families that use trusts and those that don’t]

Tim Wilson: I think the focus has to be how we're going to grow the economy to get Australians ahead. At the moment, it doesn't matter how people have got their financial affairs set up, they're going backwards. We know full well that real wages are going backwards because the price of the Albanese government's active inflation agenda is inflation outstripping wage growth. We know for small businesses there's declining profitability. Last data was 15% declining of profitability. If you don't make a profit, there's nothing to distribute, and there's no income to support households and families. So, the focus of the government is completely wrong, and it's focused on how they feed themselves, not how they grow the economy and empower the Australian people.

Journalist: [inaudible question on supporting legislation with carveouts]

Tim Wilson: The government has not taken any of this legislation to the Australian people at the last election. They didn't take their capital gains tax changes to the Australian community at the last election. They didn't take changes to trusts law to the last election. They didn't take changes to negative gearing to the last election. This is a government that is solely obsessed in how it increases the revenue it flows into their pockets to empower them. They are not interested in empowering the Australian people or backing them to get ahead. Everybody uses the different legal options available to them so that they can protect their small business, grow their revenue base, and of course, protect their assets. The answer of the Albanese government is to kneecap those households, kneecap those small businesses, and kneecap Australians' pathways to build a better future.

Journalist: [inaudible question on Angie Bell’s remarks]

Tim Wilson: She withdrew those comments appropriately, and as far as I’m concerned, the conversation moves on.

[ENDS]