Wednesday 4 March 2026

Topics: National accounts, inflation

E&OE

Tim Wilson MP: The National Accounts today have shown the reality of what Australians are living right now. There is no more room for Jim Chalmers to hide or to absolve himself of responsibility. Public sector demand is more than double private sector demand in the December quarter. It's now abundantly clear that Australian standards of living are declining under this Government. Pyro Jim keeps pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire. And that is why Australian standards of living are declining, wages are going backwards, while the cost at the supermarket continues to rise. When Australians go and buy products at the supermarket, they're paying more to get less. Australians standard of living are declining. They've dropped by 10 percentage points and we know that we've had the biggest decline in living standards in the OECD. Now is the time for the Treasurer to take responsibility. After four years of being the Treasurer of this nation all he ever does is look at deflect avoidance to not take responsibility for the consequences of his actions. When the Treasurer pours debt petrol on the inflation fire of the economy, Australian households are paying with higher prices and lower wages. Now is the time to stand up, take responsibility, because so far all we've heard is that Australians have never had it so good from this Treasurer.

Question: Mr Wilson, the Treasurer says that you dropped a clanger by conflating how the fuel excise is taxed, it's on volume not price. What's your answer?

Tim Wilson MP: We've had four years of inflation clangers from Jim Chalmers. He's clearly not across his portfolio. He clearly has forgotten that excise is indexed to CPI twice a year. He's also clearly forgotten that in addition to excise, there's also GST. So petrol prices go up, so does the tax on petrol. Once again, he's trying to avoid responsibility, not actually understand what's happening and how they've fail to prepare for international shocks and Australian households are going to pay through lower standards of living, lower capacity to be able to pay at the supermarket and of course lower wages because he wants to keep pouring debt petrol on the inflation price.

Question: But Mr Wilson, you weren't talking about GST this morning, you said excise means that when the price of petrol goes up Jim Chalmers collects more money, you're talking about the price of petrol there, not CPI either, can you accept that you've got that wrong?

Tim Wilson MP: I think you need to be realistic if you don't think there's a correlation between inflation and energy prices and they're explicitly is-

Question: No, that's not what you said. You said excise means when the price of petrol goes up, Jim Chalmers collects more money. That statement's not correct.

Tim Wilson MP: And when inflation goes up, you see an increase in the CPI, plus then the GST. And this is where the Treasurer's clearly not across his brief. We've had four years now of inflation clangers from Jim Chalmers and he continues to fail the Australian people because Australians are paying higher prices and they're having lower wages because of the economic policies of this government.

Question: Tim, if this war continues in the Middle East for several months, the trajectory is unknown. If the oil price rises, if inflation stays high, if there are rate rises, are you concerned that the growth figures today could take a downturn and the implications that that could have, are you concern that maybe a recession could be in the months ahead?

Tim Wilson MP: I'm very concerned about the failure of the Albanese government to prepare for international shocks. We just need to think, four years ago we had COVID, it exposed to everybody, the consequences of international events and how they can impact on the Australian economy. And in that time, this government has taken no effort to prepare Australia, they've continued to pour debt petrol on the inflation fire of the economy and they've continue to rack up debt in a situation now where Australians are completely exposed. I am deeply concerned about the direction of the economy under Jim Chalmers.

Question: Mr Wilson, Chalmers has called for petrol stations not to pass on price hikes and he's also instructed them to keep their prices lower. Do you believe in the free market and customers and retailers should just let market forces rip or do you want to see petrol stations keep petrol prices as low as possible?

Tim Wilson MP: We all want lower prices, but we have a government that has not prepared for international shocks. We've been talking in this building from the last time I was in parliament to when I was out of parliament to now that I'm back in parliament about the risks associated with fuel and the risk exposure the Australian economy has associated with that. Since COVID, when international supply chains clearly showed that there was vulnerabilities, the government has done nothing to address this risk. But what I don't want to see also is a complete collapse in small businesses of which there are many in that sector. We know that under the Albanese government we've had record small business insolvencies. 41,000 have gone insolvent since the Albanese government was elected. Last year we had the highest number of insolvencies in Australian history and we're on track to have higher insolvencies this year based on current insolvency data. I want prices to be as low as possible. But it's the failure of the government to prepare for this and he's trying to deflect it onto the regulators rather than take responsibility.

Question: Can I ask you about migration? There seems to have been a shift in rhetoric from senior liberals about migration. Peter Dutton explicitly linked immigration and housing. Under Angus Taylor, the conversation seems to shifted more about Australian values. Do you still believe that curbing Australia's intake of migrants would help tackle the housing crisis?

Tim Wilson MP: I think we've got to get an immigration policy that's sustainable for Australia, that's focused on integrating people into having an Australian way of life that advances their interests and most importantly our national interests. That's why Australian values are a central pillar of making sure we protect our way of life and restore our standard of living. But it's also important that people are economically integrated, socially integrated, have housing so they can be full participants in the Australian way of life. And that's part of the policy we'll put forward in good time.

Question: Mr. Wilson who's going to build all this housing if we don't have enough skilled migrants here, given that we've got a massive labour shortage in the world of construction?

Tim Wilson MP: Well firstly we have Australians who build housing. It's not just up to skilled migrants who build housing in Australia. And of course, that's why we're being measured and proportionate in how we approach our migration programme to understand what we need for full integration into the Australian economy, Australian society, and the Australian way of life because we want new Australians to be successful Australians and to maintain social licence for our migration programme. The one thing that won't sustain my great confidence in a migration programme is illegal arrivals or when the government, as it did post COVID, took in a massive bounty of migrants from overseas into Australia at a time that sent shocks through the housing market.

Question: Mr Wilson, Katy Gallagher yesterday said that the Australian public service is about the right size right now. We've started to see some fairly significant layoffs across the private sector as a result of the introduction of AI. She says that the AI measures that the APS has taken so far will have no impact on job losses. What do you think about the size of the APS?

Tim Wilson MP: Well I think the APS needs to be sustainable based on delivering for the Australian people. That should be our guiding principle to deliver the services Australians need, the public sector Australia needs to able to deliver frontline services in the community. And that should be our focus on outcomes, not on inputs.

Question: Mr Wilson, if oil and gas prices continue to rise, should something like an energy bill rebate be back on the table?

Tim Wilson MP: Well this is a good question for the Treasurer but he's the one who's going to be responsible. So far his only policy response in every measure he's taken is to pour more debt petrol on the inflation fire of the economy and he has said things will not be inflationary in the past, they've since proven to be and so we want to see non-inflationary measures being put forward.

Question: Mr Wilson the ACTU has proposed a new entitlement for Australians being increased by one week. What does the Coalition make of that?

Tim Wilson MP: Well I'll take the ACTU seriously when they have those measures for themselves just like when they proposed other measures in the lead up to the productivity roundtable, which by the way, didn't exist in the December quarter according to the National Accounts. They put forward proposals they weren't even able to apply for themselves. And this is the gross hypocrisy of the ACTU. They're out there boxing for arguments to try and shift the conversation. The thing that's destroying the working rights and the standard of living for Australians is inflation because the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, keeps pouring debt petrol on the inflation file. I'll take one more question.

Question: Your register of interest shows several self-managed superannuation funds and some other investments as well, but doesn't appear to show any underlying holdings like particular equities or ETFs. Do those holdings exist in any form? Are those funds empty? And it seems to be a view amongst yourselves and some of the other MPs that you don't need to disclose the holdings of different funds, just the headline fund themselves. Do you think that's right?

Tim Wilson MP: My register of interest is all in order of compliance with the standards set by the Parliament. Thank you.

ENDS