Wednesday 5 November 2025

E&OE

Tim Wilson MP:

This morning we had the Prime Minister and the Minister for Employment and Workplace relations once again shut down a pathway for scrutiny and accountability for fresh new allegations of CFMEU corruption. This is now the fourth time that the Albanese government has used the parliament to shut down pathways for accountability and scrutiny from whistleblowers about CFMEU corruption and their Administration. Twice they have shut down a pathway for scrutiny in the Senate. Twice now they've shut down a pathway in the House. Yesterday the Prime Minister was about to be asked a question about CFMEU corruption. Instead of answering the question, he chose to shut down Question Time. Today, of course, the Minister of Workplace Relations and the Prime Minister has shut down an inquiry that was put forward to the Parliament by myself into CFMEU corruption. At some point this government is going to have to answer for the intricate relationship that exists between organised crime, cartel kickbacks and the CFMEU. And more importantly, people in the CFMEU continue to give advice to the Minister, including Zach Smith. He self-identified he was tainted enough to jump off the National Executive of the Labor Party. Minister Rishworth continues to have Zach Smith as an advisor on the National Construction Industry Forum. The question for the Minister has to be when is it that she is going to answer questions about why she keeps taking advice from people within the CFMEU and particularly while she is using the Parliament to shut down pathways for inquiry into the CFMEU, its Administration and fresh allegations of cartel kickbacks and corruption put forward by whistleblowers. I'm going to take questions on this topic and then no doubt we'll have other topics as well.

Question:

What's the next step for the CFMEU [unclear] ?

Tim Wilson MP:

We're going to continue to ask questions through parliamentary processes. We want an inquiry through the House and through the Senate to make sure that there is proper accountability. The Minister can't keep hiding. She's sat in her crisis bunker now for weeks, completely unwilling and unable to answer basic questions about the oversight of the Administration she's put in 15 months after the CFMEU Administration started. She has gone on and we have heard allegations from whistleblowers, saying that the corruption is getting worse and it's time she fronted up, answered questions and the Administrator came to the Parliament of the people of Australia and answered questions about their conduct including why key people have been put into positions by the Administrator and later sacked on allegations of bribery.

Question:

Why haven't you been pursuing the Minister in Question Time over this?

Tim Wilson MP:

Yesterday afternoon we got up to ask questions and the Prime Minister's only answer to this was to shut down Question Time and this just shows you how much the Prime Minister and the Minister doesn't want to answer these questions because they know that they will have to answer for it and discuss the tainted relationship between them and the CFMEU.

Question:

You're a Victorian, do you think that Victoria has deliberately not developed its gas resources because it's worried about losing out on GST?

Tim Wilson MP:

What the Victorian Government is doing is up to them, but I've always supported more gas extraction so that 90% of Victorian households rely on gas for hot water, for heating and of course, critically for industry. And what we need is the Victorian government to get off their ideological rant, focus on the fuels that Victorians need to build out industrial growth and support households. To reduce the cost of living, but instead of doing that, they've continued to limit gas supply and Victorians are paying the price through rising prices, whether it's at restaurants, whether it is through shops, or of course, whether its through their household bills.

Question:

Mr Wilson, do you believe that the next zero debate is the Liberal party... [unclear] To be with how to respond to it? Has that prevented, and distract from issues like CFMEU, like housing, that sort of thing?

Tim Wilson MP:

One of the wonderful things about doing these press conferences is that I am extremely disciplined in my messaging and focused specifically about CFMEU corruption. So, of course, journalists will raise other issues at different times but when it comes down to it we know full well that CFMEU corruption continues to taint and plague this government because we have a Minister who has a key advisor from within the CFMEU and it's exactly the same time she's blocking inquiries to hold the CFMEU and corruption accountable.

Question:

What's the feedback you're getting from your constituents about net zero?

Tim Wilson MP:

Well constituents have a diversity of views about net zero but there's one thing that they don't have a diverse view about, which is net zero corruption in Australian construction sites.

Question:

So some corruption is okay, but it's fine if it's offset with anti-corruption measures?

Tim Wilson MP:

That's a cute line. The reality is people have no tolerance for corruption in Australia whatsoever, particularly on Australian construction sites. And they don't want to see the Government hiding behind parliamentary processes because they think they can get away without answering questions. Yesterday we posted the video of the Prime Minister getting up and shutting down Question Time rather than answering questions hundreds of thousands of Australians have now viewed that video and are now seeing very clearly the consequences of the government running scared, shutting down parliamentary processes and abusing parliamentary processes just so they don't have to answer basic questions.

Question:

Mr Wilson do you believe you'll be able to retain the seat of Goldstein if the party .. [unclear]

Tim Wilson MP:

I'm an eternal optimist about holding Goldstein because I fundamentally believe and I am an eternal optimists about holding Goldstein because one of the things we did in the 2025 campaign is offer the people of Goldstein a compelling vision about the type of country that we are going to build together. And I have not shied away from those debates and will not continue to shy away from those debates. I think they're incredibly important. But central to that is how do we make sure we get inflation down. Getting inflation down part of that is to stop. Public money and private money going to cartel kickbacks that are pushing up the cost of public projects and going flowing through to the CFMEU. We need to make sure that Australians can have affordable housing. Part of the process of doing that is making sure that absorbed in the cost new home builds isn't cartel kickbacks that flow through to the CFMEU. It's very important to make that we're building out the future growth of Australia like stopping crime and corruption, which was another central tenet of our campaign. Funnily enough, one of the biggest problems we have in the country right now is the crime and corruption of the CFMEU, the costs it's passing on to Australian households through new bills, through less value, through higher taxes and of course debt which is going to be paid for by future generations. So this issue of the CFMEU corruption is essential to making sure not just we retain Goldstein, that's important, it's actually about making sure we build the type of country we want to be.

Question:

You said you offered a compelling vision, is Sussan Ley offering a compelling vision?

Tim Wilson MP:

We're in the process of building out our policy platform for the 2028 election maybe 2027 and Goldstein we did that in the lead-up to the election and of course we'll continue to do that in lead up to the next election locally and nationally.

Question:

Would you like to see the party come to a position before November, or the last final sitting week?

Tim Wilson MP:

I'm always keen to make sure we resolve policy positions as quickly as possible, but the key position and decision that needs to be made now is one by the government. We've made it very clear that we have set out a pathway to hold the CFMEU and Administrator to account, and to do so we have setup parliamentary processes. The government now has a choice. The government has a choice about whether it wants to allow now for parliamentary scrutiny of the corruption that's going in the CFMEU, in the processes and the Administration that has been set up and that whistleblowers themselves have said it has created a worse situation than existed 15 months prior. I'll take two final questions because we have other commitments.

Question:

Plenty of households would have been hiding from an interest rate cut yesterday. It looks like inflation now and the reserve bank forecast will be higher for longer. What do you put that down to? Do you blame government spending? If so, should the Coalition be clear about what savings they would make and where those spending could be cut?

Tim Wilson MP:

We know that one of the core drivers of inflation has been state and federal government spending flowing through greater demand and pushing up inflation, fuelled by debt and of course passed on through sustained higher interest rates. Australians are living the consequences of Labor's debt spending through higher interest rates. One of the challenges the Coalition is always going to face is we don't know how much worse that debt spending is going to be. Between now and the next election and of course we'll look at all of those things but it's very clear to us that when you've got debt spending that are fuelling inflation, Australians will pay the price through higher interest rates and that's what's putting upward pressure on household bills.

Question:

You've got to admit, even in this whole net zero debate, that you're in quite a precarious position as one of the few Liberal MPs to win an inner city seat at the last election. That even if you do succeed in holding the CFMEU to account and fixing up the union situation at the moment in construction, a lot of your voters will be concerned if net zero is dropped. So how can you say that getting rid of net zero isn't really a priority at the moment?

Tim Wilson MP:

I haven't said any thing of the sort. Firstly I'll just clarify I didn't say anything that you just imposed. Secondly, I was actually the only person who won the seat in the last federal election, so not one of the few. And I've always said that climate change policy is central to building our environmental stewardship, making sure we have good economic policy as well as good environmental policy. How we land and how we're going to build Australia's clean industrial future to decarbonise is so important. One of the problems we now have is during the last Coalition government, emissions went down. Not my view, the Department of Climate Change, Energy and Water's view in terms of stats. What happened since there's been a change of government? Emissions have either stagnated or at points gone up. Not my views, the Department of Climate Change, Energy and Water statistics. So we've got to confront. That's the only benchmark of success. So the government has failed. They promised lower emissions, lower prices and of course lower outages as part of our electricity grid. We have higher prices, higher emissions and we've had a less reliable electricity grid that's why at every point I've said I support fundamentally net zero price increases, net zero outages and of course as part of that is a pathway to a lower emission footprint because the social licence for lower emissions is dependent on Australians being able to afford lower emissions over time.

Question:

Sussan Ley said today that the public brawls we're currently having on net zero is a good thing, do you agree with that?

Tim Wilson MP:

Sorry, I didn't hear the last part. And that was actually the final question, but I'll take it because you said, what was the final part?

Question:

Sussan Ley today while speaking to media, said that the public brawl on net zero has been a good thing for the party. Is that something you agree with?

Tim Wilson MP:

I've never had a fundamental issue with debating issues but I'm putting my position forward about standing up for not just what the community believes in, what I believe in, but how it is we're going to build out the future industrial growth and clean industrial growth of our country, because this is only part of many of the trade-offs that any future government is going to have to confront. We know the consequences of what's happened under Labor, where because they haven't managed prices and they've gotten higher, unreliability in the electricity system has gotten worse. What's happened? Public confidence in emissions reduction has declined. That is the lived reality of Labor's mismanagement about these issues. In exactly the same way, support for the CFMEU Administration has collapsed because what we have now is whistleblowers publicly saying that corruption has gotten worse and enabled under the current Administration. And there's only one pathway through that, I think now, which is we need a parliamentary inquiry at the House, at the Senate level. Labor is blocking both. Minister Rishworth is blocking both while she's still taking advice from CFMEU officials. Now is the time for accountability. Now's the time for action on this government because while that CFMEU corruption is getting worse, Australians are paying higher prices. Thank you very much.

ENDS