The Hon Tim Wilson MP
Shadow Minister for Small Business
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Employment
Member for Goldstein

Wednesday 11 February 2026

Transcript - Interview with Peta Credlin - Sky News

Topics: Leadership, CFMEU-Labor cartel

E&OE

Peta Credlin: Here to discuss this and more, Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Small Business, Liberal MP for Goldstein in Melbourne, Tim Wilson. Tim, thank you. Explain what's happened in the timeline here on this report. Initially they were redacted. Now we understand exactly what was removed. How do we get this information now in the public domain?

 

Tim Wilson MP: So it's quite simple, Peta. The CFMEU administrator who was appointed after it was exposed, the CFMEU was infiltrated by organised crime and bikey gangs. The administrator was handpicked by Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister. He then commissioned a report into CFMEU corruption in Queensland. The report came back and said that there was standover tactics and intimidation public servants by CFMEU officials. Once Labor was elected to government. They then commissioned a second report into violence and corruption in the CFMEU in Victoria. The administrator received the report from corruption watchdog, Geoffrey Watson, FC, and rather than publish the whole report, he redacted two chapters. The chapters deal with the corruption between Labor and the CFMEU and particularly the big build in Victoria, which has led to $15 billion of money, public money, basically being washed into corrupt funds. And Watson pushed back and said, no, that's my conclusion and that's what you wanted in the report. Through the Wood Inquiry in Queensland looking into CFMEU corruption, the report was tabled and it was outlined through Nick McKenzie in the Nine Press today, the scale of it. We wrote, I wrote to the Minister, the Administrator and Fair Work in December and said, where is this report? We demand copies of it because it talks about corruption in Victoria. And that seems to be what has led the Administrator to delete this couple of chapters because it's an inconvenient truth behind CFMEU corruption.

 

Peta Credlin: And we get to know about it now, I understand, because the Wood Royal Commission was going to use it, so Royal Commission powers to make available this material and that's forced to hand. So take us through some of the detail in there because we are talking about some $15 billion. For a state like Victoria that is already drowning in debt and so many of these major projects they ran during COVID when private sector businesses were shut down. We've all heard the stories of the lollipop girl directing traffic on $180,000 a year but now the stories are that people were paid for work, they never turned up, there were biking gangs involved. Give us a sense of the scale here Tim.

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well, it's industrial-scale corruption, Peta. And you're right. The report wouldn't have naturally been released. We wrote and demanded a copy of it. You're correct that the Wood inquiry then turned around and said, well, we're basically going to compel it to be released, which is where things have ended up. And the industrial scale of the corruption is that basically on big-build projects, organised crime and bikey gangs sold off the rights for workers to operate on certain sites. So they would look at a particular location, they would then turn it around to an organised gang, sell off the rights so workers could come in and they would have to pay cartel kickbacks. Into the CFMEU, and the organised crime gangs, if they wanted the rights to work. So this is explosive, extraordinary, and it raises really serious questions when we know the most... Hiding in plain sight, corruption scandal in this country is between Labor and the CFMEU, particularly state Labor in Victoria, that the National Anti-Corruption Commission doesn't seem interested. The State Age Corruption Commission doesn't seem interested. It's taken a Queensland inquiry and Federal Parliament, including myself, to compel this evidence to the public domain.

 

Peta Credlin: Just on the Liberal Party, you know, I've written about this and I do it with a heavy heart, but I think the Liberal party genuinely is in an existential crisis at the moment. How true do you think that is?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well, I think what we need is a way forward. I've said today on another programme on this network that it doesn't much matter who sits in the swivel chair. What matters is what they do with that and whether they lead in positions of leadership. And I've heard you say similar things. On the weekend, I gave a speech which very clearly outlined what I believe is the way forward for us as a party. It needs to be anchored in what we believe in, but more importantly, who we believe in and what we're prepared to fight for and who we're prepared to fight for. Built on the idea that we should have the love of country, a respectful society, a country where hard work pays off and one where people feel like they're in control of their own lives. And I think one of the most important ways we can do that is to have a very aggressive agenda on small business and I flag publicly that we have some things very much in the works because I think when people see us fighting for them, based on getting ahead...

 

Peta Credlin: Yeah, but in the works Tim doesn't save you. Nine months, I keep making the point, Abbott went from winning the leadership by one vote and in an election in eight months, and bloody near won it, right? But for one seat in 2010, you've got to have had nine months and all you've done is say we can't support Net Zero anymore with no alternative, but no other policy. What's everybody been doing?

 

Tim Wilson MP: Well, that's of course a question as far as I can tell you. We have something in my portfolio that we're very much about to be putting...

 

Peta Credlin: Yeah, but everyone is scrambling this week, Tim, you and Paul Scar and everyone, all the talking heads on the TV this week have been saying it's just about to come, it's about to be launched, we've got policy on the way, you're nine months in, in a three year term mate.

 

Tim Wilson MP: I accept that completely and I don't disagree that there's a serious and urgent need to get this stuff out there and fight for it. The truth is, in the context of immigration, it's quite clear that things were about to be released but because of the Bondi massacre, things changed and timelines changed.

 

Peta Credlin:  No, she was going to release principles, Tim. It was just principles. It was just principles and you've worked in a think tank. You've worked on policy. You're a smart guy. You can't just live on principles. You have to have real fair-dinkum policy. It's got to be costed and it's got to mean something to the punter.

 

Tim Wilson MP: I agree and it's got to be something that people are sufficiently stirred and spirited that they want to go and fight for because on that basis it means that they see what we're offering is enough value to them that they wanna go out and fight for themselves and in the process to get a Liberal government elected. I couldn't agree with you more, Peta.

 

Peta Credlin: Okay, if she disappears as Sussan Ley's role, will you serve on Angus Taylor's front bench?

 

Tim Wilson MP: I say consistently, I will absolutely serve however the party wants me to serve. And I have it in that, in one way, shape or form, because I want to see Liberal government elected. I want us to be driving a really hard agenda on small business, sole traders, family businesses and the self-employed. And I want make sure that when people look at us, because this is a central part of addressing the political challenge we have right now is we are a party of commerce and being pro-commerce. They need to see in our policy, they need to see it's aggressive and it's not going to just fiddle at the margins or have a little tax credit over here. It needs to be substantial and meaningful enough that they want to see a change of government.

 

Peta Credlin: All right, thanks Tim.

ENDS