Tuesday, 3 February 2026

Transcript – Interview with Sally Sara, ABC RN Breakfast

Topics: Liberals, Nationals, rate rise, small business insolvencies

E&OE

Sally Sara: Tim Wilson, welcome back to Breakfast.

Tim Wilson MP: Thanks for having me.

Sally Sara: The leaders of the Liberal and National Parties held talks last night. How urgently do you want to see the parties reunite or could a longer break be beneficial?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I want to have a conversation with the National Party that's based on mutual respect and wanting to achieve a shared outcome, which is focusing on fighting for the people we should be standing up for, like the 15,000 small businesses that have gone under last year under the Albanese government. We need to focus squarely on them. The way to get there is obviously for people to focus on standing up for the communities that we represent.

Sally Sara: Will members of the Liberal Party Room accept a potential return of the three former Nationals Shadow Ministers to a new Coalition Shadow Cabinet, even after they breached shadow cabinet solidarity?

Tim Wilson MP: I'm not going to forerun any decision that's made between the two leaders but the one thing I would stress is there's a very strong view from Shadow Cabinet and Liberal Party MPs that we need to have Shadow Cabinet solidarity that when we decide something as a Shadow Cabinet that it's honoured because that's how we work together to build the case for a change in government for Australia to advance Australians.

Sally Sara: Do you trust that The Nationals, if the Coalition is reformed, do you trust that The Nationals will respect and adhere to Shadow Cabinet solidarity?

Sally Sara: Well that's certainly the expectation as a condition of forming a Coalition and being part of Shadow Cabinet. If they want to go off and become independents, that's their choice. But the way we work is to be part of a team focused on advancing the best interests of Australians and that means you need to unite and keep your focus squarely on holding the Government to account and making the case for the millions of Australians who currently feel like they're drowning under inflation, the risk of an interest rate rise today because this Government simply can't control its spending and we're all paying a price.

Sally Sara: Are you angry about what those three National Shadow Ministers did?

Tim Wilson MP: I'm disappointed, of course, and I think that's a universal view, but it's the thing I'm most disappointed about is when we have persistent inflation, driven by government expenditure, and then unable to pull their belt in that there's this distraction from how we're going to fix those problems, because that's actually what Australians are living with right now. And, you know, a lot of people are looking towards the middle of the day and the decision of the Reserve Bank, and where the interest rates are going to go up at back of that persistent inflation because of government expenditure. And they're deeply worried about their future and the consequences.

Sally Sara: If the split between the Liberals and Nationals continues, could it help other Liberal hopefuls and Liberal MPs to do what you've done, and that is to defeat a Teal Independent?

Tim Wilson MP: The best thing to defeat an independent or a Labour candidate or anything is to be a strong advocate for your community and to stand up, not just for what that community believes in, but more importantly for the people within that community. Because that's what people want. They don't want to see us fighting each other, they don't want to see us fight in our political games. What they want to see is us fighting for them because everyone knows that Australia has big problems. Persistent inflation driven by government expenditure is obviously part of that. And we've got to arrest those problems because people are feeling it in their hip pocket right now.

Sally Sara: Are you confident that Sussan Ley will still be Opposition Leader when parliament rises at the end of next week?

Tim Wilson MP: I'm confident of that but the focus has to be on how we're driving that economic conversation. The more we're drawing the conversation to focus on how we lift the pain on Australian households, the 40,000 small businesses that have collapsed and gone insolvent under this Government, the more we are advancing their case as the basis for how we are going to improve the lives of Australians.

Sally Sara: With the polling that we're seeing currently for One Nation, is there a risk that The Nationals could be torching themselves electorally if that continues?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, that's ultimately a matter for them, but people want clarity, they want authenticity, and they want a sense of hope. And they want parties of government to stand up and advance the national interest and how average Australians are going to connect their lives to advancing our shared sense of responsibility. That's why it's so important to shift the conversation, to get off this sort of drama and get it back onto the core focus, which is how everyday Australians are feeling right now.

Sally Sara: Tim Wilson, thank you very much for joining me this morning.

Tim Wilson MP: Thank you.

ENDS