Tim Wilson MP
Shadow Treasurer

Interview with Graeme Goodings on FIVEAA Adelaide

Topics: Shadow Treasury, housing affordability, small business, CFMEU-Labor corruption

E&OE

Graeme Goodings: Well, as you've heard in the news over the past 48 hours or so, Angus Taylor has announced his new Shadow Cabinet. One of the most important roles is that of Shadow Treasurer. The man appointed to the role is Tim Wilson who joins us now. Tim Wilson, good morning to you.

 

Tim Wilson MP: Good morning, thank you for having me.

 

Graeme Goodings: Firstly, tell us about yourself. What's your background?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Sure, well I've been the Federal Member for Goldstein since 2016, except for a little interregnum between 2022 and 2025. I was formerly Chair of the House Economics Committee overseeing the banking sector and have also served as Assistant Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction. Prior to Parliament, I was Australia's Human Rights Commissioner, I live in Melbourne, don't hold that against me, happily married man, those sorts of things.

 

Graeme Goodings: Do you think you're eminently qualified to tackle such a vast portfolio as treasury?

 

Tim Wilson MP: I mean, the short answer is yes. When you think about the issues that are confronted in Treasury, what you've got to have is a clarity and vision about where you want to take the country. And having previously served as Shadow Minister for Small Business, I want to put small and family business and self-employed Australians at the heart of economic policy because we need hope in this country and it's not by Canberra and big corporates deciding our fate, it's empowering Australians to decide their future. What do you see as your key priorities? Well, I just went through one of my absolute key priorities, which is to make sure small and family business and self-employed are at the heart of economic policy. But the other big one is to address the corruption that exists in our political system. I'm not sure how much it made news in South Australia, but last week there was an independent report by an anti-corruption investigator that found tens of billions of dollars, Australian taxpayers' dollars, are ending up in the hands of organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel. We know there's corruption in the NDIS system. We have to confront this corruption and the patronage system it creates. So they can be part of a long-term solution to make the budget and the tax system sustainable.

 

Graeme Goodings: Our national debt is heading towards one trillion dollars. Do you have any plans, if in government, on ways to reduce it?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well, of course, yes. First thing, stop adding to the pile in the ways I've just articulated. And I think there's a lot more to be done than just CFMEU-Labor corruption and the NDIS corruption. But we also need to look at the tax base and what we're incentivising. Jim Chalmers right now is proposing or floating a new housing tax, which will actively discourage investment in housing when we desperately need more housing. We've got to look at how we incentivise the right type of behaviour, which is economic activity, Australians backing themselves. You do that and you'll get the tax revenue you need to make sure the budget's sustainable and frankly so people can be more independent. I'm a bit old school. I grew up in a time where it was something you should be proud of, that you're independent, self-supporting so you can support others rather than just taking from the taxpayer.

 

Graeme Goodings: Now inflation while other similar countries around the world the inflation is heading down our inflation continues to rise. How much do you put that down to Labor spending?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well a lot of it's Labor spending at both a state and a federal level. You see this in South Australia where debt continues to rise and they use that money to inflate the price of wages, inflate the number of people employed, because we've got a private sector employment crisis, where private businesses are not confident in investing in their future and employing Australians, but the government is then going and employ people in their place or with programmes they've designed. What does that mean? You're getting continued demand driven by taxpayer expenditure. It's putting inflation up, it's putting interest rates up. And, you know, we're at serious risk of it continuing in that direction until we fix the problems and get private money invested back into the future of our country.

 

Graeme Goodings: Housing affordability a major issue, any ideas in that area?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well, resolutely it's a major issue and that's why if you add a new housing tax on house builds, as Jim Chalmers is proposing, you will get less houses built. We've seen this in Victoria, they introduced a vacant housing tax, we have seen massive increases in land tax, and what has happened is developers have just thrown their hands up and said, we're not going to bother investing anymore in Victoria. So you're not getting new rentals. You're not getting new houses being built for home ownership. And as a consequence, the prices just continue to spiral out of control. So we need to stop the rot there, but then it's how do we align it to encourage incentivize people and to build new housing. And this is why CFMEU corruption is so problematic because all those costs then pass on to new house constructions and it makes it more expensive, and takes longer to build new housing that Australians desperately need.

 

Graeme Goodings: While housing is a principal issue and there are so many young Australians who've just given up the thought of ever being able to own their own house, the government is talking about getting rid of capital gains tax. What are your feelings in that area?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well, that's the new housing tax. They're talking about getting rid of the capital gains discount, which means that the price or the tax applied to housing is going to go up. It's an old principle of economics. If you want to incentivise something, reduce the tax. If you wanna stop it, increase the tax, Jim Chalmers' answer to housing is to add more taxes, which means less investment, less new housing, which only means that Australians are going to pay more.

 

Graeme Goodings: So, it's a long time till the next election, what can you offer Australian voters that will see them in a better place to perhaps buy a home, to have a better standard of living than what the current government is doing?

 

Tim Wilson MP: In generations past, Australians, frankly, grew their wealth by buying a home and sitting on it for a long period of time. The future of the Australian economy is going to be about small and family businesses and the self-employed backing themselves in, and we're going to have policies specifically orientated towards making sure we unleash the ingenuity and potential of Australians who want to back themselves, work hard because we want hard work to pay off, and at the centre of economic policy should be aspiration and hope. We can't just tinker at the edges anymore. We have to change our approach and we have to encourage people to stand up and take responsibility for themselves for a better future.

 

Graeme Goodings: Tim Wilson, good to chat. That's the new Shadow Minister. Tim Wilson Shadow Minister for the Treasury.

 ENDS