Monday 11 May 2026

Transcript – Interview with Sharri Markson, Sky News

Topics: Federal budget

E&OE....

Sharri Markson: All right, and let’s bring in now Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson. Tim, great to see you again. Look, I want to start with the proposed changes to Capital Gains Tax. If this is applied—because you know, people focus on the housing side of it—but if this is applied to productive assets, including shares and businesses, this could have a major impact on investors in startups. It also decreases the incentive to invest at a time when AI is already posing structural risks to our economy. So do you think productive assets should be excluded from the changes?

Tim Wilson: Well, I think we need to start by saying that the whole proposal shouldn’t be included because the government went to the last election saying they weren’t going to do it. The Prime Minister was red-hot with rage when he said 50 times over, “I’ve said I’m not going to do this," and now he’s got over the election and he’s decided to betray the Australian people and the trust that they gave him. But there is a material consequence to non-property assets. I think a lot of people were lulled into the argument by the government that this was just going to be about property and went, "Oh, it doesn’t really affect them." I can tell you, we are getting so many stories coming through our Not The Tax website at www.notthetax.com.au of young Australians—

Sharri Markson: Get the plug in.

Tim Wilson: Yeah, well, why not? Of young Australians who are... who have been investing into the future so they can get a house deposit, and now they’re finding that they’re going to have double the tax rate on their shares. And of course, we’re getting a lot of founders who are saying, "We might just leave the country and take our businesses with us," a "founder flight," as it were. And your point’s right: we’ve got AI which is going to be a critical part of future growth of the economy. Australia is already one of the homes of so many people who are AI specialists. They already leave overseas in many cases because they can’t secure opportunity here, and then this government is saying to those that are left, "get nicked."

Sharri Markson: Tim, you often speak about intergenerational inequity—you have for your entire political career. Do you therefore agree with Labor that winding back negative gearing and Capital Gains Tax discounts would help young people get into the market, or do you think that these changes... you know, the landlords would just pass on the increase to renters?

Tim Wilson: Well, it’s not even about what I think; you just need to go and look at what happened when Paul Keating did this back in the 1980s. Got rid of negative gearing—what happened? The price of rents went up. There’s already been modelling being done by SQM Research which has found that between a $160 increase in rent in Sydney per week, $130 or thereabouts in Melbourne per week are a consequence of this change. This isn’t going to do anything for housing supply; no one’s really arguing it is. What’s the tax that young Australians pay the most? And it’s income tax. And so far, we’ve seen no real effort to reduce that—in fact, that’s the one tax the government’s kept stagnant and wants to continue to reap the benefits of, while they simply seek to go after taxes on other people in the community and increase the cost burden on them.

Sharri Markson: I was just talking to Paul a bit earlier about the political impact of breaking an election promise. Do you think voters will punish the Albanese government for this, or are they just going to get away with it?

Tim Wilson: I think voters now no longer look at him with any sense of trust. And more to the point, the next time they say, "We’re not going to do that," we can legitimately turn around and say, "Well, you know, fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on me." And so, I think the situation now is their credibility is in tatters on tax and their integrity around it. So, I do think people will start to see through the government and the dishonesty. But it’s ultimately up to a viable alternative to be put forward, and we’re putting a lot of work into making sure that we have an alternative tax vision for this country so that we can seek to prosecute it because young Australians need hope. The government is letting them into a paddock of despair and seeking to feed resentment and fights around family tables. They need hope for the future.

Sharri Markson: Well, it seems like at the moment, you guys aren’t the alternative—that it’s One Nation. So, is the lesson from Farrer that the Liberal Party needs to take more conservative policy positions?

Tim Wilson: Well, we are the opposition, and one by-election does not make a general election.

Sharri Markson: And the South Australian result, of course.

Tim Wilson: You mean where we’re still the opposition? The reality is, and we just had an Nepean by-election only last week... weekend in Victoria where the Liberal Party won. So, I know Cameron Milner and others who are part of the Labor Party artifice want to run this argument. We have a lot of work to do; I am under no ambiguity about that. We need to rebuild trust, we need to strengthen our policy offering, and we need to make sure that Australians believe so strongly in what we’re offering that they’re out to prosecute the case for us, and that’s a central part of where we need to be in the next election. But it’s about actually how do Australians get ahead, and the one way they don’t get ahead is with new taxes, which is what’s being proposed by the Albanese government.

Sharri Markson: But Tim, I mean, this isn’t just a political line run by Labor figures like Cameron Milner. I mean, this is the result: One Nation won Farrer. It had... it won I think four or five seats in the South Australian election as well. It is polling ahead of the Liberal Party, and those polling figures have come to fruition at the ballot box.

Tim Wilson: And I’m not contesting that; every election is different and every election is up there to be won. The compelling or the clear story out of Farrer, out of state elections, is that once upon a time, the pendulum just swung between Liberal and Labor. I’ve said many times: that is no longer what happens. Now you need to... the pendulum swings on different axes, and we need to be the most bold, compelling, confident Liberals that we need to be for the future direction of this country.

Sharri Markson: Sure, but just bold in what direction? So doesn’t it mean more conservative, which is what One Nation is... how they’re attracting voters?

Tim Wilson: Well, I don’t think it’s a choice between left or right, in the old expression of Reagan; it’s up or down, which is we need to be empowering people to live out their best lives, to be respected... were a nation where hard work pays off and Australians are in control of their lives, and that’s the policy orientation that we should have.

Sharri Markson: Just finally, do you think the Liberal Party will have to consider a governing coalition with One Nation to have any shot at getting back into government?

Sharri Markson: Just finally, do you think the Liberal Party will have to consider a governing coalition with One Nation to have any shot at getting back into government?

Tim Wilson: No.

Sharri Markson: Well, the rate you’re going at the moment, you will.

Tim Wilson: Well, watch us.

Sharri Markson: All right, I will do that. Tim Wilson, thank you very much.

[ENDS]