Interview On Sky News Budget Program, 12 May 2026

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Joining me live in the studios, the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson. Tim Wilson, thanks for your time. Let's go through some of the headline commitments here from the government. I want to see whether you'll support them. The $250 income tax offset. Will you will you back that?

[00:00:14]>> Yeah, well, we support those measures, but we need to be realistic about them, which is every time the government has made a bold claim around tax cuts, it's been eaten up by bracket creep. Uh, and you just look at the tax cuts they took to the last election, they were wiped out by December. um these sorts of measures will maybe last 6 months.

[00:00:31]Inflation is the problem eating into the household savings. Australians are $32,000 behind on where they were at the start of this government um year on year because of reduced purchasing power and these measures are going to be a mere salve on that.

[00:00:47]>> Will you seek to reinstate the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing arrangements as they are today? Well, our objective is to fight them and to make sure they're defeated. And we've already been collecting >> to fight the changes >> to fight the change. We've said very clearly we're going to oppose these changes because you just need to go and look at the government's own documents.

[00:01:05]You have a a budget that's built on uh broken promises. Uh and what we have in this situation is very clearly a tax increase on Australians, but isn't going to lead to building more homes. The government's own budget documents show that 35,000 fewer homes are going to be built over the next decade and rents will increase as a consequence uh of these changes.

[00:01:30]>> So if you are unsuccessful at that, would you seek to reinstate them?

[00:01:34]>> Well, we're ultimately that's where we'll end up. will repeal these measures if necessary, but our objective is to defeat them and to make sure that they're never legislated because this government doesn't have license from the Australian community support these changes. Um they the prime minister said 50 times over in a fit of red-hot rage in the leadup to the election uh that these weren't going to happen. The treasurers have been caught out basically lying to the Australian community with the prime minister.

[00:02:01]Australians are angry and more importantly uh there there's been a clear record of broken trust and it's not even going to deliver the claim benefits that they say.

[00:02:10]>> Well, they're adamant it will provide more supply in new housing and therefore free up existing stock for first home buyers.

[00:02:18]>> There's just one little problem. Their own budget papers don't say that. They say there'll be 35,000 fewer homes being built. More than that, before people buy their first home, they tend to rent.

[00:02:31]Their budget papers admit if their changes, >> that's counting to their commitment.

[00:02:35]They'll have 75,000 new first home buyers, additional first home buyers in the next decade. That's their claim.

[00:02:42]That was the claim by the treasurer in the budget speech.

[00:02:44]>> That that's the claim and we've yet to see any hard evidence to back that up.

[00:02:47]But we have seen their own budget documents admit very clearly that they're going to build 35,000 new homes, their own um projections around uh migration so that they're going to overshoot by about 90,000 in the next two years and rents are going to increase. And if you're a first home buyer, you tend to rent first. They're going up and so many young home buyers seek to invest their deposit first and they're now going to get whacked with higher capital gains.

[00:03:14]>> Okay. So, support for the income tax offset, albeit you're not you're not uh thrilled with it. Uh you'll oppose the capital gains tax and negative gearing.

[00:03:23]What about the structural saves in the NDIS? That's up. That's the first legislative priority from the government. I'm told as soon as tomorrow, will you back those? Well, we will absolutely back measures that will reduce the corruption and waste in the NDIS, but the big challenge is going to be whether the government delivers on these reductions in the NDIS spending.

[00:03:45]What the government has done is pretended there hasn't been a problem for such a long period of time. And now we're seeing them finally take some basic measures when a lot of what they're taking uh to change the NDIS to fix it. we actually put forward when we were last in government and they blocked and opposed it every step of the way to the point that the NDIS has gotten out of control. Corruption, fraud is now out of control and even they've come to realize that they have to act. But remember the program continues to rise in spending year on year. Uh and there is it's very challenging to see relief inside. you you're obviously challenging the government's approach to to doing this in terms of dealing with younger house buyers, people wanting to get in to the the property market. But you would recognize you have to do something, don't you? The system as it exists at the moment is blocking out so many younger Australians.

[00:04:35]>> We absolutely believe and absolutely passionately support efforts to make sure that young Australians can get in to buy their first home. But the government's own budget documents admit that isn't what it is going to do. It is going to reduce the volume of housing supply over the next decade. While they also admit as one of their key underlying assumptions of their budget that they're going to overshoot their migration. So more demand, but they're actually going to reduce supply. That's madness.

[00:05:02]>> This is a crucial week for the the Liberal Party, for Angus Taylor particularly. Do you recognize that in terms of this looming budget reply as well given how how difficult things are politically right now for the opposition?

[00:05:15]>> Well, our focus on how we're going to build a future for Australia which is built on um hope and growth for uh young Australians to get ahead. This is a critical week for us because we need to make sure we have clear measures that outline not just that we've got fight but we're going to fight for the future of the country and we will.

[00:05:30]>> The the broken promises and they are clearly broken promises. I put that to the treasurer earlier.

[00:05:37]>> Will they hang around the government's neck? That's the question.

[00:05:40]>> It's absolutely going to be milstone around the government's neck because you can't go in election.

[00:05:44]>> But it's up it's up to you to do that.

[00:05:46]>> 100% and we I can assure you we will not stop doing so. The government went and the prime minister went redhot with rage before the last election to any journalist who dared ask whether he would repeat his commitment not to increase negative gearing, not to increase trust, not to increase capital gains tax. and uh he has now completely broken that trust with the Australian community. We know that once you break trust like that once, what's to mean that CGT shouldn't apply to the family home under a future?

[00:06:12]>> He he actually was emphatic on that. I asked him about >> just like he was before the last election.

[00:06:17]>> No, maybe a little bit more on family home.

[00:06:21]>> Was he red hot with rage on this one?

[00:06:22]>> Wealth and inheritance. He categorically ruled them out. Previously he said, "I don't have plans for these things and so on." So he says one thing before an election, changes his mind after, in the first budget after, and now we're expected to take this guy on trust. The prime minister and the treasurer have been caught out lying to the Australian community. To be fair, they seem to have at least admitted it, just like they've admitted they're going to build fewer homes as a consequence of these tax changes. They've admitted they're going to be higher rents on young Australians.

[00:06:51]And they've admitted they're going to start taxing the investments on deposits of young Australians. They are not interested in it. They have designed a budget around spin and they're trying to make the substance stack up.

[00:07:02]>> But the housing question, and you know this, I'm not telling you anything you don't know. You you've you've argued this. It's pivotal to giving people a stake in our in our nation, in our economy, isn't it?

[00:07:13]>> 100%.

[00:07:14]>> Will is will Angus Taylor give us a sense of where the Liberals want to go on this?

[00:07:18]>> Well, he's already flag.

[00:07:18]>> There's a whole generation who are waiting to hear. There are a whole generation waiting to hear for a defining liberal vision for the future of this country around um people being able to invest to get ahead where hard work pays off. Australians are in control of their own lives and they feel a sense of respect which starts by telling the truth.

[00:07:35]>> Will we get some more detail on Thursday >> and on Thursday night the uh the opposition leader will be outlining that.

[00:07:41]>> Okay. We we'll wait to watch that very closely.