10 June 2026

Transcript - Interview on Sky News, First Edition

Topics: Federal Budget, inflation, interest rates, One Nation donations

E&OE...

Alex Thomas: Let's bring you more of one of our other top stories this morning. One Nation appealing for political donations in response to a similar tactic from the Labor Party. Interested to get the thoughts of Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson, who joins us live now. Tim, good to see you on the show. What do you make of this request for donations? One Nation clearly trying to have a dig back at Anthony Albanese's party.

Tim Wilson: Oh, look, it's just part of the theatre of politics at the end of the day. They're asking for donations. If anybody wants to donate to my campaign, they can go to donatetotim.com. And I love that.

Alex Thomas: $28 per person?

Tim Wilson: Well, I hope for more than $28. My hope is that we get to a situation where we raise a lot more money from that. So, this is a reality of politics, a bit of colour and light.

Alex Thomas: Is it hard though to ask Aussies for money right now when, you know, we've seen the Australian Bureau of Statistics be the latest to compare how much of a pinch we're all feeling, saying that people feel worse off now than they did during COVID in 2020?

Tim Wilson: 100% it is, and that's the lived reality of Jim Chalmers' active inflation agenda. Their objective has been to stoke the inflation, tax the inflation, then spend the inflation and go on a cycle of wash, rinse, repeat. That's why Australians feel like they're getting poorer, even though they're working harder. And the only way you're going to see a change is if you have a change of government and a change of economic policy back to one that's responsible, focused on building out the future economic growth of the country, and one where Australians' hard work pays off.

Alex Thomas: Business groups are the latest to call for a review into the government's tax changes. Presumably, you would support that?

Tim Wilson: Well, I don't think the tax changes should be put forward. The tax changes were explicitly dismissed before the last election. The Prime Minister broke his word with the Australian community. And so, slightly making it less damaging or less painful isn't going to be the solution to building out the future economic growth of Australia. You need investment. You need people to be investing to build new small businesses and startups and backing in the self-starters of Australia, and that doesn't come through higher taxes. We already have record small business insolvencies, the highest on record, and the only solution the government has is to increase their costs, inflate our prices, crush consumer demand and confidence, and now add more taxes to the pile.

Alex Thomas: And the National Australia Bank is the latest to predict and call for a rate cut next week. Would you welcome that?

Tim Wilson: Of course, we always want lower interest rates, but let's wait and see whether that's actually happened. The markets and the banks have got this wrong many times over. And we need to look at what the underlying factor is. The government, through its policies of tax, is crushing consumer confidence, crushing small business confidence. So, if this is a reflection, and I think it very clearly is, of the Federal Government's budget, they're seeking to crash the economy in one of the most insane economic acts, I think, we've ever seen from an Australian government.

Alex Thomas: Okay, Tim Wilson, really appreciate your time on Sky News this morning. Thank you.

[ENDS]