Wednesday, 15 April 2026

Transcript – Interview with Ashleigh Gillon, Sky News

Topics: IMF, Budget, Inflation

E&OE

Ashleigh Gillon: Tim Wilson, Tim, great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us. We just heard from the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and he spoke on the May Budget. He said that it won't be identical to what they planned in February, but it will be ambitious, of course, the main issue being the Middle East crisis. What did you make of the comments from the Treasurer if you did get to hear him?

Hon Tim Wilson: Well, it highlights their budget strategy for the past four years has been wrong. For the past four years, they've said they've got everything in hand and the pathway to build An economy, Labor's economy, is focused on spending more. What we know is they've now admitted they got that wrong. They were stoking inflation by pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire. They've left Australia weak and vulnerable in the context of these international events. The IMF has now called it out and said, you need to stop the spend, you need to contain and be prudent and responsible, and you need to focus on building a country for Australians, not for the Labor Party.

Ashleigh Gillon: Jim Chalmers said that he's bought the debt down, he's delivered a couple of surpluses, and he did say there's more work to do. Do you agree?

Hon Tim Wilson: Absolutely not, because at the end of the day they've continued to spend, they've increased the volume of off-budget measures. That's the shadow budget. They don't like to talk about that. And the shadow budget shows more and more money increasing in a little column they don't want to count. They've lost control of the books and we know that because the Albanese government is focused on building an economy for labour and a country for labour, not for the Australian people.

Ashleigh Gillon: Anthony Albanese talks about supply, supply, supply in terms of our fuel, our energy. He's in Brunei. He mentioned that Australia receives 9% of diesel from Brunei, 11% of urea and we are a reliable source of food to Brunei. How concerned are you about our supply?

Hon Tim Wilson: I'm very concerned because the government has missed the boat continuously. I remember sitting in the House of Representatives for the first three days where Chris Bowen denied that there was ever going to be a problem and then has led three days later to declaring a national crisis on fuel, but now we've got a crisis on fertiliser, on urea and the basic inputs to industry. This government has missed the boat on this crisis and Australians are at risk and left vulnerable. They missed the boat by making sure that we had a strong budget position in the lead up to this crisis. They missed the boat on making sure they're investing in resilience of the Australian economy in the lead up to this crisis and they've missed the boat literally on fuel supply, such to the extent he's now scrambling and running around South East Asia trying to secure energy for Australia so we can keep jobs and Australian households going.

Ashleigh Gillon: What are you hearing from people? Because in the past week, for example, many people have brought to our attention that, in their opinion, this is worse than COVID, and that is from farmers to restaurant owners, and they do anticipate this is going to go on for a very long time, even if the conflict does end pretty much straight away. What are you hearing?

Hon Tim Wilson: I'm hearing similar things, particularly there's been a complete collapse of consumer and small business confidence. There was data out yesterday from Westpac and the ANZ which showed that it was the biggest drop either since COVID or bigger than COVID. So people are nervous out there. The job of the government is to reassure Australians. But it's very hard to reassure Australians when you go into a crisis like this, where you've missed the boat, you've left Australia vulnerable and households now feel like their government doesn't have control of the situation. Yes, the Prime Minister's scrambling around the region trying to get secure fuel supplies and other things like fertiliser, but the challenge they're going to face is that consumers have lost confidence and are giving 3 thumbs down to their government and their capacity to be able to build a future.

Ashleigh Gillon: What's the solution then?

Hon Tim Wilson: Well, so many of the solutions were the ones we put forward three years ago, four years ago, around the need for being prudent and responsible, not simply creating honeypots that can be raided by organised crime with public money. So now the money we need to help households is in the hands of organised crime, whether it's the CFMEU, the NDIS, increasingly reports that of home aged care packages, or child care rorts. This is what happens when you don't take responsible action, you leave the country vulnerable. Now it means the government needs to be even more disciplined and even more prudent to make sure they address these problems and so they can support households.

Ashleigh Gillon: Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson, thank you so much.

Hon Tim Wilson

Thank you.

ENDS