Interview on News24, AM Agenda

Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Topics: gambling reform; interest rates; housing; Victorian WFH laws; AI Royal Commission.

E&OE……………………..

Laura Jayes: Joining me now is Shadow Treasurer, Tim Wilson. Tim, great to see you. I quickly want to ask you about gambling reform. What happened in party room? What's the sticking point here?

Tim Wilson: Well, it's not my place to talk about party room, but of course, people always voice their views about important areas of legislative reform, and what we're focused on is dealing with a package that will address the concerns that Australians rightly have about protecting children from different forms of gambling advertising so that we can build a stronger, healthier nation. But we're not wowsers, we're not nannies. Our focus is on how we empower people to take agency and control of their lives.

Laura Jayes: Okay, so you'd leave advertising alone, but perhaps be on board with restricting bonus bets and other inducements?

Tim Wilson: Well, there are ongoing conversations with the government, and when those are resolved, you'll have an announcement to those things. But I can tell you that everyone in the Liberal party room and the National party room is focused on how we empower Australians to take control of their lives, to be able to be responsible actors, and to support their families, and that's what should guide us.

Laura Jayes: Seems like this is not easy for the party room, though. There's a fair bit of disagreement.

Tim Wilson: Well, as I said, I think on Sunday Agenda on Sunday, when you become a member of the Liberal party room or the Nationals party room, you're entitled to have your opinions. You don't have a full-frontal lobotomy like members of the Labor Party, where they just walk around automaton-like repeating the lines. People have views, they should be entitled to express them, and it's good that they do.

Laura Jayes: Is this an ideological split on free market personal responsibility?

Tim Wilson: Well, it's a focus on how we design law to empower people to take control of their lives. Of course, we believe people should have freedom to choose how to live their lives. Of course, we believe that we should protect children. How we design law to achieve that is hardly a radical proposition. It's one that should be carefully considered, stepped through, and make sure that we get a package through the parliament that works to build a stronger Australia.

Laura Jayes: Okay, let's talk about, well, it's rates day. We expect rates will be on hold. That doesn't necessarily say we're in a healthy economy right now. I want to dwell on Westpac's results yesterday that showed mortgage lending was down 20%. What does that say about the housing market and whether first home buyers are getting in?

Tim Wilson: Well, we know that confidence in the market has been smashed since the federal budget. Investors, being the people who build houses so there are available rents, are running away from the market. What we also know is that the price of first homes has gone up. Cotality data, industry data, has shown this. So, we're actually getting the worst of all outcomes, which, to be fair, was predicted in the budget. The government did acknowledge under their budget, rents would go up and the volume of housing supply would fall, and that's what's happened. But the only thing it didn't predict was that the increase for first homes would also go up. So, at every point, the government is knee-capping young Australians and their pathway to get ahead.

Laura Jayes: Sure. But we've seen the housing market slump about 15%. Is that good news for first home buyers?

Tim Wilson: Well, that's why I go to the industry data. What's showing is that the price of a first home is going up. The price of the top end of the market of property is coming down. So, unless you're interested in favouring the children of millionaires and billionaires, clearly what’s the objective of the government is focused on, then first home buyers are actually going to find it harder to get into the market because of Labor's tax changes.

Laura Jayes: But if the lower-end is going up slightly, doesn't that show that's where the demand is?

Tim Wilson: Well, I don't think it's a genius to say that there's demand there, that means you need to build more homes. But that's not what's happening under this government. And the budget papers say this: they're going to build fewer homes. So, unfortunately, we're both going to see fewer homes for rent and fewer homes to buy, and unfortunately, despite the rhetoric and the spin from the government, young Australians are going to be worse off under the Labor budget.

Laura Jayes: Let's talk about work from home in Victoria just quickly. This has been delayed until after the election, but the Liberals in Victoria still want legislation on work from home. What's going on there? Would you caution them against it?

Tim Wilson: Well, I think we need to make sure we have laws that empower employees and employers to make decisions about their own working arrangements. That's always been my view and always will be my view. And in some workplaces, it's flexible for work from home based on mutual agreement between employees and employers. What's clear out of what the state government is doing is this was always politics. Your previous guest, James Campbell, is right. It was always politics, it's still politics. Now they're pushing it past the election so that they can claim a victory, but in reality, let's wait and see whether it actually goes on to be...

Laura Jayes: They successfully wedged Jess Wilson, though.

Tim Wilson: How so? We support people's freedom to choose and to be able to decide their own circumstances.

Laura Jayes: They’re still saying they would legislate it.

Tim Wilson: Well, and that's why we need to make sure that whatever work from home arrangements exist, that there is some, it's proportionate and recognises the realities of workplaces, because teachers and tradies don't get the option to work from home.

Laura Jayes: Exactly. Okay, one quick one. AI, a Royal Commission. Good idea, apparently, according to Peter Malinauskas. Is that something you could get behind?

Tim Wilson: I think we should be looking a lot at AI. We've talked about AI a lot before. Whether a Royal Commission is the best way to advance it, I'm not so sure. I think one of the biggest challenges we have is there are multiple issues that are going to be solved and addressed by AI, and multiple challenges are going to be presented by it. I think it's a responsibility of people like myself, Peter Malinauskas, and all of the other people in the federal parliament to actually try and understand what those changes are going to be, rather than handballing it to a lawyer and thinking that they're going to be able to solve it for you.

Laura Jayes: Tim Wilson, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

Tim Wilson: Thank you, Laura.

[ENDS]