Thursday, 17 September 2026

Topics: IMF report; inflation; interest rates.

E&OE……………………..

Tim Wilson: The Treasurer has not had a good week. His week started with Bill Kelty, Labor legend and Keating's Svengali, going out there and saying the Treasurer is letting the Australian people down. Only the other day, we saw leak after leak after leak from his own colleagues who are saying Australians simply are not buying the Treasurer's spin. Today, we've had an international report card from the International Monetary Fund saying the Labor government's economic model is not working and it's harming Australians.

The persistent problem of the Albanese government's economic model is its active inflation agenda, where it actively spends to stoke inflation, to then put them in a position to tax inflation, to then go on and spend inflation and keep a vicious cycle going which is sending wealth and wages of the Australian people backwards. Australians are falling further behind under the Albanese government's economic model. The Australian people are seeing a decline in their wealth and their wages, and now, an international report card is coming out and saying that they need to focus on reforming the economy, making taxes simpler, and boosting wages, not sending wealth and wages backwards.

In the last federal budget, we saw very explicitly where the government should have been driving tax reform that simplified the tax system, it made the tax system more expensive, more complicated, and made it harder for Australians to get ahead, particularly for those who are in small businesses. This morning, we had a roundtable with many people from the construction sector and small businesses who are screaming at the Treasurer saying that you are selling us out, making it harder for younger Australians to get ahead, and making it harder to set up and operate a small business in Australia profitably.

The Albanese government, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, are the economic dementors of the Australian economy, sucking the soul and life out of small business and the wealth and wages of Australian households. We now have a government that is actively working against the Australian people. Bill Kelty can see it, Labor backbenchers are leaking it, and now an international report card is coming out and explicitly saying it.

Journalist: With the U.S. Federal Reserve raising interest rates, what do you think is coming down the pipeline [inaudible]?

Tim Wilson: What it signifies is that if you don't manage debt, eventually debt controls you. What we have is international bond markets putting upward pressure on interest rates, and of course, the Treasurer knows this, I've warned him about it consistently, and his constant spending addiction is only contributing and making it worse. Sadly, it's clear that markets are pricing in two increases in interest rates this year, and that means higher prices on mortgages, and because it's driven by inflation, higher prices at the supermarket that's eating into the wealth and wages of the Australian community.

Journalist: [inaudible question on the RBA following the Federal Reserve’s decision]

Tim Wilson: Well, it's clear that markets believe the Reserve Bank is going to increase interest rates. Michele Bullock has been out there saying to the government, stop your spending addiction, stop daring us to increase interest rates, and we've seen exactly the same thing from the Deputy Governor in recent days. It's quite clear that unless the government takes substantial and corrective action, they continue to dare the RBA to increase interest rates on Australian households, increase mortgages, and increase supermarket prices. The government is playing a game of interest rate chicken with the Reserve Bank, and it looks like the Reserve Bank is going to have its hands forced once again.

Journalist: [inaudible]

Tim Wilson: Well, firstly, what the government needs to do is what we have been arguing now all along. They need to focus on economic reform that boosts the economic productivity of the Australian people and our economy. We need to make sure that the government slows down public spending, because it's debt petrol the government is pouring on the inflation fire that is continuing inflation in the Australian economy and daring the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates. If the government will not take responsibility for its spending, if the government won't stop pouring more debt petrol on the inflation fire, Australians will pay a higher price through higher mortgage rates and through higher prices at the supermarket.

Journalist: [inaudible question on the impacts of the Iran war on inflation]

Tim Wilson: Well, we know that international conflict has a temporary effect, and of course at the headline inflation rate. But the problem isn't the headline inflation rate. The problem is the underlying inflation rate, which is a domestic inflation problem, and it's coming from the government that has an active inflation agenda that keeps pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire, and their active inflation agenda is focused on stoking inflation so they can go on and tax that inflation and then go on and spend that inflation in a vicious cycle which allows the government to take more of Australia's wealth and wages from them, but that means Australians go backwards while the government can't control its spending. Thank you very much.

[ENDS]