Tim Wilson MP
Shadow Treasurer

Interview on Sky News with Laura Jayes.

Friday, 13 March 2026.

Topics: Fuel security, Jim Chalmers' debt, Iran war, AI.

E&OE

Laura Jayes:  Tim, thanks so much for your time. Inflation predicted to get to four and a half, maybe even five per cent. Is that all out of the government's control?

Tim Wilson MP: Not at all. What we know up until this point is Australia had a persistent inflation problem because the government keeps pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire. But what they've done is kept that fire alive. So when an international event like this comes along, it overtakes. And this is the problem with the approach the government has had to date. And the Treasurer has admitted this, which is inflation has been persistent. And now, of course, it's catching on and having a much bigger impact on the economy and Australian households are going to pay that through higher prices at supermarkets.

Laura Jayes:  Well, there's no doubt the war in Iran has accelerated inflation. I know it was well out of the target band and it was going in the wrong direction anyway. But what can and should the government do to counter the economic fallout, which is just getting worse the longer this conflict goes on?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, it's easy to say, you know, do one trigger or pull another trigger at this very moment. And some that government should be doing where they've obviously released some oil reserves to be able to increase the available supply. But the real problem is that over the past three years when they've been in government post-COVID, which clearly exposed to all of us the consequences of global supply chains and their fragility. The government just hasn't taken the measures necessary to build out Australia's secure supply, particularly of oil in the way they should have, and that's left us now exposed. COVID was a real eye-opening moment, I think, for our country we saw it with health supplies. Action should have been taken since COVID to better protect us. It hasn't. And you can't just change a lot of these things in the moment.

Laura Jayes:  So how long should Australia be supporting this war in Iran? I mean, do you have a red line in mind?

Tim Wilson MP: I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment because I don't have access to the information available to us and I'm obviously not talking to the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Israel. But what we know is that, you know, this conflict we hope doesn't escalate any further. Because it's not just about the conflict, it's what then follows from that to provide stability, not just for the economy, but for global security for all of us. It's quite clear to me that the only pathway forward for Iran is if the Iranian people take control of their destiny to make sure that we have a broader environment of stability in the region.

Laura Jayes:  But what is clear, Tim Wilson, is that Australians, indeed, people right around the world, are paying the price of this war. So what do you say to them, how long this should go on and how long Australia should support the US efforts there? Is it until they get regime change, or is it the stated objectives of knocking out the missiles and making sure they don't have any nuclear weapons?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I'm not trying to be obtuse. I think I'd defer that to people who have access to the information that is not available to me. But it is clear to me that there will be consequences. There are consequences, from not taking this course of action. There are consequences, from taking this course of action. And of course, there will be consequences the longer it goes on. They're economic, they're also human rights based for the people of Iran. What we need is Iranian people to seize control of their own destiny. We need to stop the nuclear program of Iran and the threat that poses to everybody. And of, course there was an entirely legitimate reason to you know, challenge the IRGC on the simple basis that they're involved in exporting terrorism around the world, including in our own country, including at sites not far from where I am located in my electorate office right now.

Laura Jayes:  As an alternate treasurer of this country, I want to keep on the economics as well because it's not easy, the calculation in Iran at the moment. But as we sit here, as inflation gets higher, interest rates increase, the cost of everything goes up, put simply, people are going to lose their homes here in Australia because of this war in Iran, and we support it?

Tim Wilson MP: The hope is that this passes and that people won't do things like lose their homes, but we need to put this against a backdrop that preceded the war. Inflation was ticking up, this is not my opinion, its ABS data shows it very clearly, in the December quarter. So that's last year. We've had a persistent inflation problem because the government keeps pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire. And as a consequence, Australians are feeling real pressure. I mean, it's real. At the supermarket, even before these events, at the bowser, and, of course, at the cost of housing. And so what we need to do is have a real focus on paring back expenditure. And, you know, Labor says, well, what do you want to cut? I've made it very clear. For $15 billion given to organised crime to the CFMEU-Labor cartel, good place to start. NDIS corruption, a good place start. So long as the government keeps pouring debt petrol in this inflation fire, Australian households will pay, particularly the supermarket.

Laura Jayes:  Yeah, you're right to point out the things that they can control, not the things that they cannot. I also wanted to ask you about AI. We've discussed this in the past. I spoke to Toby Walsh from UNSW. You know, he's worked really well. This is what he had to say just quickly.

Toby Walsh: It's really uncovered how important AI has become for the U.S. Military, how it's been used extensively in this conflict in Iran. It's been use to shift through mountains of intelligence to help identify select targets, potentially even erroneous targets. There's some debate about whether this elementary school that was targeted, whether AI, Claudes tool was particularly used in helping come to those decisions. It demonstrates that big tech is starting to fall out of favour with the Trump administration. We saw all of the big tech leaders lined up behind Trump at the inauguration. Well, now they're discovering that Trump is a friend that you can't necessarily trust, and it's good to see them pushing back.

Laura Jayes:  So, Tim, not specifically to AI use in war, but it kind of demonstrates just how the acceleration of AI is not only affecting, you know, the rules of engagement, but also the jobs market. Atlassian shedding 1,600 jobs just yesterday. I don't feel like anyone in Parliament is talking about AI enough. Do you agree with me?

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I am talking about it and, in fact, I was literally stepped into this interview after writing about it because I consider it to be central, and this is where I think the Treasurer and the Government are completely asleep with the wheel. That's not a partisan point. I genuinely think they're completely misdirected in their focus on what they need to be doing to build out the future of the Australian economy because what we're seeing is there's a huge exposure. There's been assessments done by the University of Sydney basically showing about 8.5 million Australian jobs could be impacted by artificial intelligence and not necessarily in a good way because they can be automated. Because there's been such a shift from small business to large corporates, particularly in areas like regulatory compliance, those jobs are very exposed to automation through AI. We need a much more seismic conversation, but more importantly, directionally a shift and an economic reset to address the challenges of AI. And unfortunately it goes against the corporatist model of big governments, big unions, big industry funds and big business working together that the Labor Party is so in love with.

Laura Jayes:  But, hang on, business are the one at the forefront of all of these. They're doing more than government right now.

Tim Wilson MP: Do you mean in terms of adoption?

Laura Jayes:  Well, in terms of adoption, but also, we've got to give credit to a lot of Australian companies who are looking to use AI, not just to shed jobs like some companies, but to actually enhance and re-skill their workforce. The Government's not doing that.

Tim Wilson MP: No, I accept that. And there's a big difference between big business and what we're going to need to do to support people and back themselves in, in what is going to be a disruptive environment. It's clear that it's going to disruptive. But at the moment, the government, big business, big unions and big industry super funds are working together in this corporatist model and people are just being thrown by the wayside in this conversation. The capacity for our economy to adapt is going to be contingent on risk and distributing that risk and giving people pathways to build new futures. The data I've seen in terms of number of people who are self-employed over the past 20 years has declined rapidly because the environment, the business environment to be able to give people a chance to step up and be enterprising and innovative has declined particularly under this government.

Laura Jayes:  Tim Wilson, great to talk to you, thank you.

Tim Wilson MP: Thanks Laura.

ENDS