Tuesday 12 May 2026

Transcript - ABC news, 7.30 Report Budget Program

Topics: Federal Budget

E&OE ...

Sarah Ferguson: For the opposition’s first response to the government’s big economic blueprint, Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson joins me. Welcome, welcome Tim Wilson. Now, when we were talking just a moment ago, you said you thought this budget was weird. What do you mean?

Tim Wilson: Well, at the end of the day, the government has put forward a budget that’s about broken promises, higher taxes, lower living standards, and fewer homes. We set three basic tests for this budget, which was to restore standard of living, the reality is standards of living are going backward under this government, real wages have gone back by 3% over the life of this government. We set a test around building Australia’s security, it has less spending on defence from 2.1 to 2% of GDP. And we set a test that was fundamentally about making sure that we saw a better outcome for Australians and honesty in the budget. And the problem is there has only been one point of honesty that we’ve seen in this budget, which is we have seen 35,000 fewer homes being built over a decade and higher rents.

Sarah Ferguson: When you talk about honesty, do you need to read that off your notes?

Tim Wilson: No, there’s just a lot of numbers and in this context at the moment Sarah and the reality is we’re seeing fewer homes being built, 35,000 of them being built over the decade while we’re seeing an increase in the overall number of people who are arriving under migration.

Sarah Ferguson: House prices have grown 400% in 25 years. That’s the figure that the Treasurer used in his speech. Do you accept that the government has to pull all levers in a crisis of that magnitude?

Tim Wilson: I don’t accept that the government should be doing things on the basis of broken trust. And that’s the problem with what this budget is set up...

Sarah Ferguson: Do you accept that there is a crisis for young people getting access to home ownership?

Tim Wilson: There is a challenge around young Australians being able to buy their own home. The solution that the government is putting forward is to build fewer homes based on their own data and to see an increase in rent.

Sarah Ferguson: I refer people to the Treasurer’s interview just now who made a case about it being the whole of the housing policy having to be seen in a whole, but just to correct you slightly on that, but that’s available to people. The Treasurer says that tax changes will deliver housing. Are you able to look young people in the face and say “I deny you that opportunity, I don’t want to see these changes to the tax code that has had such a deleterious effect on access to housing”?

Tim Wilson: But that’s simply not a reasonable proposition forward. The government has put in its own budget documents they’re going to build 35,000 fewer homes over the life of this budget. They’re going to increase the price of rents on young Australians. And when you look through the other measures they’re introducing including capital gains tax, if you seek to invest your home deposit to buy your first home, the government is going to increase the taxes on that so they’re actually hamstringing young Australians who want to get ahead, save for their future and be in a better position to buy their own home.

Sarah Ferguson: So let’s be very clear about this: would you support any of the measures that the Treasurer has put forward this evening in relation to housing access?

Tim Wilson: Well, they’re not propositions on improving housing access. What they’ve putting forward is new taxes on Australians, whether it’s through capital gains, through trusts or negative gearing and we won’t be supporting those because by the government’s own admission it will lead to fewer homes being built for young Australians to be able to get in the property market and increase the price of rents while also on their own projections overshooting the number of people who are coming in the migration programs.

Sarah Ferguson: So to be clear, categorically, you will not support any of these measures?

Tim Wilson: We won’t be supporting these measures because it fundamentally undermines the pathway for young Australians on their own data to be able to buy their first home.

Sarah Ferguson: Now, also presented tonight, 13 million workers will receive a $250 tax cut with the working Australians tax offset, which they receive in 2028. Do you support it?

Tim Wilson: So, we do support this measure, because ultimately Australians need to be able to be protected from the consequences of Jim Chalmers’ active inflation agenda. But let’s be realistic, every time the government puts forward a measure like that, it’s outstripped by inflation. The tax cuts they gave at the last election were stripped out by December. The tax cuts that are being proposed by this government will ultimately be stripped out by the end of this year. So until they get their spending under control and stop inflation, Australians will continue to be worse off.

Sarah Ferguson: You’ve accepted that there is something of a crisis of access to housing for young people. So what have you got on offer to combat what the government is putting forward now?

Tim Wilson: Well, the Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor, has already flagged that we’ll be announcing a series of budget measures in the budget on Thursday night. And particularly around tying a relationship between building of construction and of course migration, which is in direct opposition to what this government is offering, which is 35,000 fewer homes while concurrently overshooting their own migration forecasts.

Sarah Ferguson: Do you support targeting negative gearing in its present form or should it stay exactly as it functions at the moment?

Tim Wilson: Well, we won’t be supporting the proposed changes that have been put...

Sarah Ferguson: But what about negative gearing more broadly? Do you think it should stay untouched? Is that your message to young people in Australia tonight?

Tim Wilson: Well, it’s simply dishonest to correlate it to housing construction in the way the government’s seeking to, except that it leads to fewer houses being constructed, by their own budget documents, 35,000 new homes being built over a decade as a consequence of the changes they’re being put forward, what we and it will lead to higher rents, the government’s own documents admit that. So, if we’re being honest about the budget circumstances, we need to acknowledge that there is a real and direct consequence of the proposal they’re putting forward.

Sarah Ferguson: How do you think your constituents tonight will feel looking at you? Your younger constituents looking at you tonight? Do you think that they... that’s what they want to hear from you? That there should be no tinkering with these tax settings at all?

Tim Wilson: Well, I think what they want is to be able to get ahead, to put themselves in a position to save for a deposit, to be able to buy their own home, and we know that supply is an essential part of increasing housing availability. Instead, what the government has done tonight is broken a series of promises so there’s no trust left with this government anymore, and in addition to that, they’re going to build 35,000 fewer homes while increasing rents and taxing first home deposits if they’re invested.

Sarah Ferguson: Tim Wilson, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

Tim Wilson: Thank you.

[ENDS]