Tuesday, 2 September 2025

E&OE

Peter Stefanovic:

Joining us live, is the Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tim Wilson. Let's start with your thoughts on this, Tim.

Tim Wilson:

Sure. Well, I mean, this is clearly the Albanese curtain of secrecy is descending on Canberra. They're trying to impose a truth tax on people being able to access basic information from government. The argument being put forward that it's being dealt with to address bots is ridiculous. Software platforms deal with this every day when they have a little box where you tick it, and they put up a little code so you have to enter it in to make sure that you're not being used by a bot. Surely the Commonwealth of Australia can figure this out.

Peter Stefanovic:

What about the claim that, you know, criminals, bad actors could be using it to access data, you know just to take the government's side of the argument, I mean is there a way to make it harder for them to access?

Tim Wilson:

Well, I think they need to provide hard evidence that this is actually a real problem. At this point, they seem to be throwing out these allegations without any substantiation. The claim they've put out there is that there are bots out there doing things. Now, that may be happening, but as I said, this is dealt with by software platforms every day. If there's other information that's being accessed by nefarious actors, provide evidence where this is a problem, but again, provide an alternative solution instead. They're just imposing a veil of secrecy over the entire government. It seems sort of like what you'd get when you have a government with a 94 seat majority and doesn't want scrutiny.

Peter Stefanovic:

Yeah, so much for transparency, as I said. Now on to housing, Tim, and this follows the weekend debate about immigration. The master builders have highlighted another shortfall, 36,000 every year until the middle of 2029. Is it time to revise that 1.2 million target?

Tim Wilson:

Well, it's about calling it out. I mean, this government is all target no delivery. The ABS data shows that 40,000 houses short of their target this year. And it's quite clear that whatever the talking points of the government, they're not actually building the homes Australians need. That's why Australians are paying more. It's making it harder for first home buyers. And the solution they're coming up with is anything they can do to hack away, to give the appearance of delivery. But in practice, like their 5% claimed deposit, is only going to boost house prices and potentially create a subprime risk in the future. This government's reckless on housing, they can't deliver, but to pretend that they can do something, they're prepared to eat into the equity of the nation.

Peter Stefanovic:

Can it all be on the federal government though. I mean, you've got this plan by the New South Wales Government, just an example here, to build 10,000 homes in Wallarra, inner city, beautiful suburb. The council doesn't want it though. Then you've got this other plan to build up Rosehill Racecourse with 20,000 homes. That was nixed by the racing members. You can't get anywhere on that kind of trend, can you?

Tim Wilson:

Well, it's not all up to the federal government, and no one is arguing it is, but the federal has said it is their responsibility and they're going to deliver on this policy. They're the ones who set their target. So this is the problem. They want to go out and boast about these big targets. They want go out and say they can deliver it. And so people are rightly turning around and saying, wow, you're going out and making these big, bold promises. You're delivering nothing even close to that. And instead you're devising new policy solutions trying to cover over or band-aid over the problem that you can't actually address. What we need is trust, what we need is openness, what we need is honesty, but of course what we actually know is they're imposing veils of secrecy and soon they'll be hiding that data rather than being upfront with the Australian people.

Peter Stefanovic:

Well yeah, the truth tax like you pointed out Tim, thanks so much for your time.

Tim Wilson:

Truth tax!

Peter Stefanovic:

We'll talk to you again soon.

ENDS