Wednesday, 12 August 2026

Transcript- Interview on 4BC, Breakfast

Topics: student protests; inflation; interest rates; housing; migration; small business.

E&OE……………………..

Jason Matthews: But let's get this bloke on right now, Tim Wilson, Shadow Treasurer. Tim, welcome to the programme. I appreciate you hanging on. You heard my thoughts around universities and high school kids, I don't know, going on strike tomorrow, protesting against One Nation. I know it's not your party, but surely this is not something that you back from our universities and high school students?

Tim Wilson: Thanks for having me on, Jason. At the end of the day, I think students should be at school, they should be focused on learning and growing so that they don't fall for false prejudice or ignorance, and that's the best place for them to do so. But, you know, there's a big difference between primary school or secondary school students and university students. University students can do whatever they want, they're just accruing debt for their education, and if they want to go and spend that time on protesting, then more fool them.

Jason Matthews: And they're adults as well. Well said, Tim. The RBA says our economic growth is essentially being propped up by migration right now. I had a bit to say about this after 7 o'clock this morning. How concerned are you and the LNP about the real health of our economy right now?

Tim Wilson: Deeply concerned about the Australian economy. We have persistent inflation, which means we have higher interest rates, and when Australians go to the supermarket, they're paying more and getting less in their trolley or their basket. We also know we've got the worst possible outcome now in the housing market, and remember, this was deliberately designed in the government's budget where rents are rising, the price of a first home buyer home is rising, there's less confidence in the market, and Australians are increasingly questioning whether they're going to be able to get ahead. We need a change of direction that focuses on growth, cutting taxes, and backing Australia's energy. Instead, we have a government that's focused mostly on trying to punch at small businesses.

Jason Matthews: Tim, I'll go one step further. We've got to cut all red tape. We've got to encourage people to build and build fast. We've got to look at how we do this. We need land available, we need infrastructure available. And, as I said earlier today, we need to put a cap, a serious cap, on immigration, because at the moment, we've got nearly 300,000 Australians that can't be housed and we keep just, it's, I mean, we know it's a pyramid scheme. We just keep adding to the top of it, and more and more Aussies are forced to go and live in their cars or sleep in tents in our parks and on our streets. We need to stop that, build the infrastructure, build the homes, bring in the people that will help us do all that, and then re-look at our immigration levels. Is that something the Coalition is looking at?

Tim Wilson: Amen, Jason. That's exactly where we're going. We've got a plan specifically focused on tying migration to housing to make sure that we get the skills we need in to build the housing stock so Australians can get ahead. As I said, in the last budget, it was a deliberate design to build fewer homes by the Albanese government. It's just madness. And the problem is, when the government does that, it increases the price of housing for Australians while they continue to pump people into the country. We need an economic reset that focuses on how we're going to build out the future productivity and growth of this country. That starts by backing households and small business, by building the houses and the infrastructure Australians need, growing the economy, because at the moment, the government's trying to fight on how much money they can take from your hip pocket, rather than trying to increase the amount of money that gets into your hip pocket.

Jason Matthews: And the Prime Minister celebrating the value of our homes falling. I mean, that's our nest egg. I just don't get that. And he's praising the, you know, the what was it, some sort of story that The Barefoot Investor wrote on the weekend. I mean, for God's sake!

Tim Wilson: This drowning Prime Minister is clutching at straws, Jason, at anything he can use to justify why house prices are falling. But never forget this: house prices are falling for the top end of the market. At the same time, the price of buying your first home continues to go up. So he's knee-capping young Australians who aren't even in the market, and he's knee-capping older Australians and families that have saved and sacrificed, and that's why we're seeing now a rise in negative equity where people owe more on their home than it's worth. It's almost like a form of economic delinquency, a deliberate attempt to undermine the Australian economy and the Australian people.

Jason Matthews: So, if somehow you're elected at the next federal election in 2028, will you scrap the changes to capital gains and negative gearing?

Tim Wilson: We've already said we'll do that, because it's so important that we back in small businesses particularly. They're not just the economic engine of the country, though they are, they're our future. And every day, somebody in small business who backs themselves to go on and employ other Australians is an act of economic hope. We should be encouraging that, not having the Albanese government punch down on them. And we need people to be able to invest in housing so they can make a buck. I mean, it's not complicated, Jason. People invest where they try and make a buck. If people can't make a buck out of housing, then they won't build it. That means that there's not the housing supply for Australians to go on and get it, and they'll pay higher prices like they are now, and particularly first home buyers. And they're just being knee-capped by a government who likes to pretend they're on their side, when they're in fact the ones committing the economic violence.

Jason Matthews: Tim Wilson, Shadow Treasurer, I've run out of time. Thanks for joining us on 4BC Breakfast.

Tim Wilson: Thanks for having me.

[ENDS]