Tuesday 29 July 2025

E&OE...............................

Peter Stefanovic:

Industrial Relations Minister Tim Wilson. Tim good to see you this morning so I want to ask you about this because you've got an important take on this and Matt's review as well for that matter as a rare Liberal to win back a seat from the climate conscious Teals. What's the way forward for the Coalition here?

Tim Wilson:

Well the way forward for the Coalition is to make sure we actually back in an emissions policy that actually carries social license. Since the Government legislated net zero. We were sold a promise the promise was simple that emissions would go down. Pretty obvious thing. Prices would go down. And of course there wouldn't be reliability issues. Here is the facts. Here is the reality. Prices have gone up. Emissions have gone up. This is the most important point. And of course we have reliability issues with our energy grid. So whatever the stated policy promise the Labor Party has put forward, it actually isn't delivering the outcome. So I see the basis of getting to net zero emissions is contingent on net zero price increases and net zero outages if you want to get net zero emissions.

Peter Stefanovic:

So is that a plan at least in your view, to drop it, to drop net zero?

Tim Wilson:

No the plan is to actually make sure we fix the first two problems to then make sure that we can address the emissions challenge. Because if you actually have prices rise if you don't have stability in our electricity grid and security in the electricity grid unsurprisingly public support for emissions reduction declines with it so it's a simple proposition that emissions reduction is an important part of the piece of the conversation but it isn't the sole determinant. The problem with Labor's plan is they're doing everything with the entire plan be wag by the tail of emissions reduction and they don't give a hoot what the impact it has on households or on industry.

Peter Stefanovic:

So you think it's still possible to get there to get to net zero?

Tim Wilson:

Well I think it's possible to build out a policy that takes the Liberal Party and the National Party forward to advance Australia's national interests because we're actually motivated by Australia's national interests. You know Chris Bowen is focused on how to appease the Greens, how to appease the Teals and remember what they say and what they do are completely different things. Labor legislated net zero. Then has opened new coal mines they've gone off and extended the life of gas projects. The Teals legislated net zero and said this is one of the most important things going round.

Then Monique Ryan, the Member for Kooyong, went off and voted for $2 billion of new coal subsidies. Allegra Spender did the same. So did Zali Steggall. So did Sophie Scamps. So did Kate Chaney, the federal Member for Curtin. They say one thing, then they do another. We're just being honest with the public.

Peter Stefanovic:

Do you think you can get there, you know, harmoniously with The Nationals?

Tim Wilson:

Well that's the basis on which we have conversation and dialogue. But when leaning into the conversation we have a process in place to bring everyone to the table because what we need to do is get more investment in energy to get prices down, to get reliability issues addressed, so that we can both make sure households and industries are supported and achieve emissions reduction in the process.

Peter Stefanovic:

Couple of notes in your wheelhouse as well this morning Tim. Locking in penalty rates. It was one of the first items up for the government last week. It was an election promise in the end are you inclined to support it or not?

Tim Wilson:

Well we're still going through our processes. We saw the legislation late last week and we've been talking to colleagues about it but there are some pretty distressing and concerning things about the Government's approach to this legislation.

I got a briefing with the Minister and I ask really basic questions like really basic. So are you completing a regulatory impact assessment or statement on this legislation? The short answer was no. We asked how many small businesses are going to be impacted by this legislation because there are no penalty rates paid on jobs that don't exist or when small businesses go under.

The Minister couldn't answer the question and frankly didn't want to answer the question. So we're looking at this carefully. We're looking at it to make sure that we get jobs, that people's penalty rates are paid because they exist, and because when we have an environment of record business insolvencies, we don't want more Australian businesses to go under and Australian jobs to go into the Albanese economic sinkhole.

Peter Stefanovic:

And just because the Health Minister Mark Butler he was just talking about this moments ago in the halls outside. So the ACTU is going to demand that employers guarantee job security before introducing artificial intelligence into their business. That could well inflame things ahead of the Productivity Roundtable next month. So the ACTU, at least according to them, they want to bar the use of AI if agreements can't be reached. Your thoughts on that?

Tim Wilson:

Well I'll wait and see what's actually going to be put forward. But so far, the approach of the Labor Government has been to try and unionise workers to stop the integration of IT into the IT sector. They seem to have their head in the sand and don't have a plan so their solution is that pretend that it doesn't exist or to block it out.

There's a simple reality. Artificial intelligence is here. We're all using that different ways on our phones. It poses opportunities and challenges. We all know that. The key thing is, are we going to lead through this challenge and be part of the solution at this point, this Government has no plan, so they're trying to pretend it doesn't exist.

Peter Stefanovic:

Final note here Tim your second Welcome to Parliament speech on tonight. Can you give us a sense of what you're going to say?

Tim Wilson:

Well I'm going to talk about how 3,500 people from a community decided to mobilise and organise to defy political gravity. But in addition to that it’s very much a speech about the future and compelling liberals to want to look to the future because this is the worst Government in Australian political history. We need to inspire people to a sense of hope and opportunity that we can do this and we can retake not just Government but that we're fighting for the future of this country because the future of the country is at stake. We need to believe in ourselves. We can do this. We must do this and we will do this.

Peter Stefanovic:

Alrighty. That's the Shadow IR Minister, Tim Wilson. Thank you.

ENDS