Interview with Peter Stefanovic, Sky News First Edition

Wednesday 6 May 2026

Transcript

Topics:Interest rates, inflation, federal budget

E&OE ....

Peter Stefanovic: Well, as we've been reporting this morning, the RBA Governor, Michelle Bullock, had a pointed remark for the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, yesterday, when she said any planned handouts would fuel inflation. And the Treasurer said this morning she's responding to a hypothetical. Joining us live now, the Shadow Treasurer, Tim Wilson. So no denial about the policy yet, Tim. Working Australians might get a $200 to $300 tax offset. What's your thoughts on the exchange between the Governor and the Treasurer?

Tim Wilson: Well, the Treasurer is Dr. Denial. He's engaging in active inflation agenda, and the Reserve Bank Governor has frankly just called Dr. Denial out about a yesterday. Throughout her press conference she answered a series of questions from journalists where she made it explicit that continuing to engage in public spending was just debt petrol on the inflation fire. And it's extraordinary that Jim Chalmers is kind of pretending otherwise.

Peter Stefanovic: If the government pushes through with the handout, though, would you support it?

Tim Wilson: Well, I've said previously, it all comes down to whether inflation offsets. What the government has been doing consistently is giving with one hand and then taking with the other. They're slipping their hand in your back pocket and through inflation taking all the value of the claimed benefits they're offering. Take the tax cuts they took to the last election: they were wiped out by December last year. So only a few months after the federal election they were already wiped out by Jim Chalmers' active inflation agenda.

Peter Stefanovic: Right, but isn't an offset what they're doing? I mean, it looks as though they're going to increase taxes for capital gains tax and negative gearing concessions while issuing a handout to working Australians. Is that enough of an offset for you?

Tim Wilson: Well, that's not an inflation offset. That's just taxing more and then trying to sort of lubricate the decision. I don't think that's the way that we have sustainable economic policy. More to the point, I also don’t think it’s a pathway to build public trust. Yesterday you had the claim by the Treasurer out there, the most extraordinary claim I've ever heard, which is that he needs to break trust to build trust so that he can then go on and target trusts. This Treasurer is both in a mixture of denial and also is deceitful.

Peter Stefanovic: Right, but if the money raised from increasing taxes on capital gains or negative gearing concessions is higher than the overall tax offset, wouldn't that be a net negative?

Tim Wilson: Well, that's a highly speculative claim. That's not anything that's been put forward as currently by the government. Quite the reverse.

Peter Stefanovic: Yeah, I guess I'm getting to the point, if it is a net negative, would you support it?

Tim Wilson: Well, let's wait and see that because the government has a consistent track record of deceit, whether it's the Prime Minister saying black and blue, red hot with rage, 50 times that he wasn't going to hit negative gearing or capital gains or trusts, or whether it's the Treasurer who said that he's found $114 billion worth of savings but then in the next breath spent $223 billion and has overspent considerably. This government doesn't have a track record on honesty, nor does it have one on being forthright about the contribution they're having to inflation.

Peter Stefanovic: Right. Do you see a political wedge coming?

Tim Wilson: I absolutely believe that the government is going to try and put as many poison pills in the drinking water as possible, but they're trying to target the opposition. The poison pills will be for the Australian community because they don't have a growth agenda that's going to improve the living standards of Australians or them to get ahead. When they're proposing family savings taxes on homes, on rentals, and on trusts, we know the impact is going to be one that is going to steal from future growth of the economy and reduce the living standards of Australia.

Peter Stefanovic: But you can see the argument already, can't you? If you don't support any policy that comes out next week, whether it's tax handouts or not, if you don't support it, then they are the party of lower taxes.

Tim Wilson: Well, if they're doing it through the pathway of increasing taxes, then I think it's highly speculative that's the case. The government does not have a track record of doing anything more than engaging in a spending binge. And that's why the inflation is going up, that's why interest rates are going up, and that's what Michelle Bullock was calling out yesterday.

Peter Stefanovic: Okay, just a final one here on a fuel announcement that's expected today. It relates to storage and security. Light on details when I was talking to the Treasurer about it today, but aside from that, are you encouraged that there's a move in this space which may or may not mirror yours from recent times?

Tim Wilson: Well, we led on the excise cut, but with inflation offsets, unlike this government. We've led with an announcement around $800 million for providing reserves for fuel because we need that for the future fuel security of the country. So, if the government wants to keep following the opposition, then yes, I'm happy to see that they keep following us. It shows you that they're out of ideas but we're ready to govern.

Peter Stefanovic: Okay, Tim Wilson, we'll leave it there.

[ENDS]