Tim Wilson MP
Shadow Treasurer

Wednesday 18 March, 2026

Topics: Jim Chalmers' inflation, CFMEU & NDIS corruption, Taxation

E&OE

Melissa Clarke: Tim Wilson is the shadow treasurer. Tim, thanks for joining AM this morning.

Tim Wilson MP: Thank you for having me.

Melissa Clarke: Was it the right call for the RBA Monetary Policy Board to raise rates yesterday?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, the RBA outlined that they were forced into this decision off the back of data, inflation data from the second half of 2025. They outlined that that was the key factor in their decision making because the government kept pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire throughout last year, their hand was forced yesterday. The more concerning thing is that of course it doesn't fully reflect the costs or the consequences of conflict overseas and like most Australians I'm concerned that there may be more to come.

Melissa Clarke: The RBA did particularly point to those figures from the second half of last year around business investment being higher than expected and a strong housing market. Are they the elements that need to be tackled to get inflation under control?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, the private demand that's coming through is being stoked by public spending and debt spending from the government. And that is the challenge we need to address. Inflation comes from Canberra. And because we've had continued and consistent public spending that has driven that private demand, you're seeing this in the inflation data and therefore interest rate rises. It's time for the government to pair and pull in its belt. If you do that, you'll get downward pressure on inflation.

Melissa Clarke: The Reserve Bank outlined two risks really, the one that the economy continues to run hot and inflation continues to rise and economic growth is still pushing forward, the other that there's an economic downturn and not ruling out the possibility of a recession. Which do you think is more likely?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, it's hard to say where things are going to go because there are a lot of events outside of our control. But what we know is that Australians are paying around $27,600 more on average on their mortgage than they were around four years ago. That's going to put a real bite into household incomes. That of course is going to constrain their spending, which is of course what interest rates ultimately are designed to do. What we need the government to do is stop priming this problem by continuing to pour debt petrol on the inflation fire and then I think it will have much greater clarity that inflation can be tamed.

Melissa Clarke: Well, if you think there needs to be more heat taken out of the economy, does that mean you would oppose any cost of living relief measures that the government might offer? Because that could add to more household spending and inflation.

Tim Wilson MP: This is one of the reasons we've always flagged that any measures need to not be inflationary because it's trying to solve a problem today but creating a longer tail later. But we know that there are so many areas that government can constrain. It's not even spending, it's frankly throwing money towards fraud. The NDIA has said 10 per cent of the NDIS is fraud or corrupt. We know that we've had $15 billion handed to organised crime through the CFMEU. Let's start with fraud and corruption first, because you take that out of the economy, you'll put downward pressure on inflation, and we'll stop throwing taxes towards fraud and corruption.

Melissa Clarke: When it comes to cost of living support though, is your message to households that they shouldn't expect anything from the government because that would make the inflation problem worse?

Tim Wilson MP: It's up to the government to decide what it wants to do, but, you know, it's very clear to me that we've had energy rebates to get the government through a difficult political cycle and there was warnings that these things would be inflationary. Of course, they have since been revealed to be inflationary, the government said they wouldn't be. So they continue to create the problem that they're now confronted with. But the problem is that for them, it's just numbers on a piece of paper. It's a live reality of Australians who are doing it tough, who are going to the supermarket and costs are going up and of course they're finding it now on their mortgages as well.

Melissa Clarke: The government is considering changes to capital gains tax concessions. The Greens want to see those concessations wound back. You've made it clear that you don't want to see the tax rate go up or the concession reduced, depending how you look at it. Is the Coalition willing to countenance tax trade-offs if it leads to an overall reduction in taxation, or would you insist on every tax rate either being the same or lower?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, my starting position is, one, I don't want taxes to go up to fund corruption. And this is the problem. We have a government that is utterly unwilling to deal with the problem of CFMEU corruption, NDIS corruption. There's now reports of issues with childcare and their answer isn't let's stop the fraud and corruption. Their answer is let's increase the tax on Australians. I just don't accept that as a solution. I think that we should start by stopping fraud and corruption when it comes to the rates, of course. You know, the government at this point has floated about 30 different options and seems to have no clarity on what it is they're going to do. Until they put a concrete plan forward, it's very hard to respond to it, but I don't think it should be hard to say, let's stop the fraud and corruption first before increasing taxes on honest Australians.

Melissa Clarke: Do you not have a principled position of a willingness or not to consider tax trade-offs, a mix of one, if it leads to an overall reduction in taxation? Can you give a principle position of whether an approach like that is something that you could be supportive of?

Tim Wilson MP: My principle position always on tax is to give anything, you know, a fair hearing and to wait and see what's actually put out there, but we don't have anything that's been put out there. Labor's trying to use the Greens and a committee they control to front run debates. They won't outline what their actual plans are, so we're dealing with the hypotheticals. But it isn't a hypothetical that $15 billion is going to organise crime to the CFMEU -Labor cartel. Let's stop that first before increasing taxes on honest Australians.

Melissa Clarke: Tim Wilson, thanks very much for speaking to AM this morning.

Tim Wilson MP: Thank you.

Melissa Clarke: That's Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson.

ENDS