Tim Wilson
Goldstein · Liberal Party · Australia
“Now, we see even more immoral leadership as the Prime Minister and his ministers refuse to audit whether federal money has found its way into the hands of organised crime through the CFMEU Labor cartel.”
“The silence that we heard from our prime minister and our national leaders every step of the way led to horrific incidents like, on 10 November, the protests at the front of Central Shule in Caulfield South in the Goldstein electorate. It led eventually to the most horrific terrorist incident on our most famous national beach.”
“The idea that you would put the social solidarity of the most marginalised section of our community on a ballot paper knowing it would fail is an abrogation of leadership and responsibility and something I do not think this prime minister will ever be able to shake.”
“I've recently been spending a lot of time thinking about what moral government is and what type of government seeks to divide citizens, feed corruption and break trust within the community. The short and sharp of it is that it's an immoral government.”
“But to engage in citizenship stacking, where they deliberately went around and targeted electorates and got people to become Australian citizens on the eve of a national poll, is absolutely disgraceful.”
“There is hope. We can have a moral government again that's focused on uniting Australians and building trust and taking Australia forward together. But the only way we can do that is by seeing a change of government and the end of the Albanese government.”
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“While the minister waxes lyrical about having the strongest possible course of action, the reality shows something completely different. The facts show now the administrator appointed figures who have since been sacked on allegations of corruption. Rather than destroying corruption, he has, tragically, become the enabler of it. Fair Work reported in estimates that they would have grave concerns if meetings were approved between the Victorian head of CFMEU, Zach Smith, and, of course, John Setka. That happened. The administrator greenlit meetings with John Setka and has completely ignored meetings with Mick Gatto, simply issuing cautions. Recent evidence has been highlighted in the Age newspaper.”
“Now they are complicit every step of the way in the corruption that has been engaged. Corruption is corrosive to our democracy. After it was revealed the CFMEU was directly connected to criminal gangs, organised crime and bikies to access public projects, the Albanese government eventually had to admit that maybe they got it a bit wrong and shouldn't have let them completely off the leash. So they put the CFMEU under administration. Fifteen months on, the verdict is now in. It's not my opinion. It's not the Labor government's opinion. It's the opinion of whistleblowers who are now calling out the administration, saying that, ultimately, corruption has actually gotten worse. Only last week, Charles Farrugia went public on the program 60 Minutes to highlight the bullying and intimidation now systemic within the CFMEU.”
“Australians should want a system of government that is free from corruption and cartel kickbacks, but the reality is we have nothing like that right now. Under the coalition government, we established the Australian Building and Construction Commission to rein in the criminal law-breaking and cartel kickbacks between the CFMEU and so many of the companies that go along with their destructive behaviour and of course their direct connection to the ACTU and the Australian Labor Party. The scale of corruption is unending, so there was more work to be done under the ABCC. But one of the first acts of this Labor government was to abolish the ABCC, take what little was left of the leash that held back the CFMEU's corruption and let it loose on the Australian community.”
“I move: That this House: (1) condemns the Government's handling of corruption allegations within the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), acknowledging that: (a) the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations continues to endorse its solution despite whistleblowers saying corruption is worse than it was before the appointment of the CFMEU Administrator; (b) the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations refuses to answer questions about new allegations of corruption since the Government put the CFMEU into administration; (c) organisers were promoted into senior roles by the Administrator and subsequently sacked on allegations of accepting cartel kickbacks and corruption since the administration has been in place; (d) meetings have been tolerated with known organised crime figures and meetings have seemingly been green lighted with violent misogynists since the administration has been in place; (e) there are allegations of bribes and cartel kickbacks being paid with the knowledge and possible sanction of the administration; (f) the union leader backed by the Government to reform the CFMEU, Zach Smith, directed a subordinate to secretly meet with a 'notorious construction industry fixer' and Melbourne 'underworld identity' Mick Gatto; (g) despite claiming meetings between CFMEU officials and Mr Gatto could lead to up to two years in prison, the Administrator only issued a caution once it was revealed this meeting was made public; (h) the union leader backed by the Government to reform the CFMEU, Zach Smith, has been having coffee and card catch ups with John Setka whose conduct was the basis for the appointment of the Administrator in the first place; (i) the Administrator has seemingly sanctioned meetings between Mr Smith and Mr Setka and they continue to this day; (j) the Prime Minister relies on Mr Smith's vote in meetings of the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party with other ministers; and (k) the current Government's failure to take tough action is tainted by its acceptance of $7 million in donations from the CFMEU, and informs why it is backing the Administration even though whistleblowers are saying it is failing; and (2) notes that: (a) the Government is not taking the action needed to stop the corruption and cartel kickbacks that led the CFMEU to be put under administration because of its conflicts of interest; (b) allowing the criminal and corrupt CFMEU to run rampant across residential, commercial and public projects, is pushing up costs to taxpayers and inflation, and is pushing up the cost of first homes by up to 30 per cent; and (c) leaked advice from the Department of the Treasury states the Government will fail to reach the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes by 2029 because it is putting the CFMEU ahead of first home buyers.”
“And now, five years on, the Sandringham Primary School has shone its brightest, celebrating its 170th year with a fate and its rebuilt rounds. The fete was not just a fundraiser but a testament to the school's enduring strength and community bond. With carnival rides, food, games and activities galore, every dollar raised helps to support staff and students at the school to continue its important work. Congratulations to the huge group of parent volunteers who helped organise the day, principal Louise Neave for the wonderful job she does steering the school, assistant principal Jennifer Parsons, the alumni staff and students on a fantastic day. The weather was glorious, much fun was had by all but, more importantly, it brought the community together, connected them directly and made them a continuing part of school relationship.”
“I congratulate them on their achievements, their entrepreneurship and the great work that they have done. I want to congratulate Sandringham Primary School on its recent fate. There is no better way to spend a Saturday morning than helping those at the Sandringham Primary School fete set up. Of special note this year was they celebrated their 170th year. In February 2020, a devastating fire ripped through the school and it had to be rebuilt after nearly 60 per cent of it was destroyed. The Sandringham community came together to its aid, and I still remember carrying bits of furniture across the Sandringham Primary site on the day it happened to help set up for the new school year. For two years, they were displaced, so, of course, the welcome fete a few weeks ago was an exciting moment to be part of the continuing life of the school.”
“David Kaplan is the co-founder of Willed, which is modernising end-of-life planning and helping families navigate important decisions with greater clarity and dignity. Mark Finn is the co-founder of ROLLER, a Melbourne-based software business supporting venues and attractions across Australia and internationally, improving customer experiences and enabling local businesses to grow. And Jack White is the co-founder of Cuttable, an emerging creative technology company helping Australian ecommerce brands reach new audiences with smarter, more efficient digital advertising tools. I suspect, Deputy Speaker Mascarenhas, you will want to use that one. These leaders reflect the strength of Victorian innovation: practical, values led and focused on real outcomes for real Australians.”
“We back Australians who back themselves, so it's wonderful to see in the Goldstein electorate a number of people who have been honoured in Australia's top 250 young entrepreneurs list. Each has demonstrated initiative, leadership, commitment to building businesses that contribute positively to our community and our economy, particularly those who start fresh, young and get on with it and create jobs and economic opportunities for themselves and for others. Laura Henshaw is the co-founder and CEO of Keep It Cleaner. She is helping reshape how young Australians think about wellbeing and promoting balance, confidence and healthy habits through a supportive and inclusive community.”
“These, of course, are not just places to drink but the heart of the community—places of connection, friendship and belonging. But these businesses—”
“It doesn't matter which pub it is. The Sandy, in Sandringham, is important one. One of my favourites is the McKinnon Hotel. Not only is the food outstanding but the pulled beer is fantastic. Hotel Brighton is where I spent way too many nights during my campaign. After long days—particularly after the summer sun—I hit Hotel Brighton. To the good folks at Hotel Brighton: keep up the great work. Believe it or not, the pub where my parents met was once called Hotel Central. It is now called the Half Moon, and it is a place that I regularly visit in Church Street, Brighton. The Brighton Beach Hotel is a regular for many people, particularly after Saturday afternoon footy. There is Hotel New Bay in Brighton as well—G'day to Cieran—the Bentleigh Social and the Camden Hotel in Caulfield South.”
“They bring people together. They bring people on their terms, whether it's for their social engagements for sporting clubs or whether it's just somewhere to go, after they knock off after a long day, to be able to find their friends. We live in a free society. Everybody finds their own place and their own home in their own different way. That's why we fully respect the important role that pubs play. I know that Ferg from the AHA will, of course, love to know that he and his industry are always in our thoughts and prayers. I saw him on Saturday, and the first thing he talked to me about was beer excise. It's not really that surprising. He's very consistent on that and always has an ask, but that's okay because we believe in the freedom to choose, and he knows that I will always stand up for pubs because they play such an important part.”
“Also in Moorabbin we've got Stomping Ground brewery, which was established in 2016 by Steve Jeffares, Guy Greenstone and Justin Joiner, after their success with a local tap house in St Kilda. In less than a decade, Stomping Ground has grown into Australia's champion large independent brewery. And we have 2 Brothers Brewery, another great local success story of hard work. Of course, it's not just those breweries, where they produce the quality liquid amber ale, it's also the local pubs that which play such an important part of the social infrastructure of our community. I say this because it's one of the things that people perhaps don't know about my personal background: my parents were publicans. I grew up in pubs. I share the member for Moore's passion for pubs as part of the social infrastructure of the community.”
“In the electorate of Goldstein, we actually have, believe it or not, in or around the vicinity, quite a few local breweries. We always want to say cheers people who are backing themselves to be successful. In Cheltenham, there's Amber Brewery. It's a business that began as a dream shared between two mates, Kieron Hewitt and Alex Kutlajevs, who turned their passion for quality beer into a thriving local brewery. In Moorabbin, we've got Bad Shepherd Brewing Co., which I've been to. It was founded by husband-and-wife team Dereck and Diti Hales. Dereck started out brewing award-winning home brews while Diti, with her love of quality dining, American-style barbeque and expertise in brand marketing, helped turn that passion into a genuine community venue.”
“It's very different from, for instance, the approach the current government is taking in other areas of excise regulation, where they're active participants in fuelling organised crime, criminal gangs and the firebombing of small businesses—something that is utterly insane, but that is exactly where we are right now. So, I'm glad to see, again, that the member for Moore, the member for Fremantle and other members understand that perhaps, sometimes, just increasing taxes in perpetuity isn't necessarily the best policy answer. Sometimes it can have an unintended consequence too. Anyway, let's get off the firebombing of small businesses and the fuelling of organised criminal gangs by the Commonwealth government, and let's look at breweries and who will benefit from this legislation. Let's go to the good electorate of Goldstein.”
“I know I'm casting aspersions on the member, and if it offends him I will, on this occasion, withdraw. I'm happy to do so. But I do support this Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025. We support these bills for simple reasons. It's because we fully believe (1) in lower taxes, (2) in the freedom to choose, and (3) in the idea that it's good to be able to give reprieve, as the shadow assistant minister for financial services believes himself in saying that the coalition actively pursued exactly the same sorts of measures in the lead-up to the election. We fundamentally believe that we shouldn't be punitive; we shouldn't seek to chase down or to hunt or to haunt people for simply going about living their lives.”
“But I know I'm going to be disappointed. I consider this to be the high-water mark of the member for Moore's career. He has reached his Everest. Sadly, I doubt it's going to go much further up from here, but that's okay. I nonetheless want to congratulate him, because he's right. When you've got so many people in communities around the country catching up at a pub and enjoying a beer on their terms, good luck to them. It's their life and their choice. Of course, it's great to have people be sociable. But we also need to remind ourselves that you don't need to have alcohol to be sociable. Even the member for Fremantle, with his puritan lifestyle, is sometimes sociable as well, and there are other members on the other side of the chamber who are also sociable despite not necessarily choosing their way through to conversation.”
“I will start by saying what a wonderful speech that was from the federal member for Moore. Finally, we have a member of the Labor Party who isn't a neo-puritan. Finally, we have a member of the Labor Party who actually believes that people have a right to have fun and live their lives as they see fit, who respects their capacity to do so, and who actually believes there is a place in society for people to have the freedom to choose how to live their lives. It was one of the most refreshing and enjoyable speeches I've heard in this chamber in the many years I've been here. I say this with great affection. It was one of the most passionate speeches I've heard him give. So I say: more of this. More of this principle of freedom to choose. Now just put it into absolutely everything else in the legislative agenda put forward!”
“Thirty years ago, Bayside was nearly five times denser than Wyndham and Melton are today. It seems the minister's auditioning to be the Premier of Victoria, such is her appetite for misleading the public and attacking people who simply want to have places to live that promote community. Here's a different alternative: Minister, grow up. Stop being a child. You're a lousy minister. Build some houses so people have somewhere to live.”
“The Minister for Housing ought to be ashamed of herself for misleading the public. Bayside, Glen Eira and Kingston absolutely do their fair share. In a recent speech, she said: Over the past 30 years, Melton has grown by 433 per cent. Wyndham by 316 per cent. And, in an attempt to punch down on Bayside, Glen Eira and Kingston, she continued: While inner suburban areas such as Boroondara and Bayside have grown at just 24 and 28 per cent respectively. Let's get to the facts. In 1996, Melton's density was 77 persons per square kilometre. Today, it is 416.5. Wyndham's density was 140.7 persons per square kilometre; now it is 621.7. Compare this to Bayside's density, which, in 1996, was 2,334.2 persons per square kilometre. Today, it is 2,851.8 persons per square kilometre.”
“I will never retreat from that position. I am proud stand for that; it is very important. When we have laws that give some people some coverage and the same is not extended to others, I will always have an issue. There is no protection like 18C in the Racial Discrimination Act that extend to the context—”
“Whether we're talking about Racial Discrimination Act or any other piece of legislation, or of course in the context of the Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2025, we're talking how do we enliven that sense of responsibility for every Australian. One of the principles that sits behind a lot of the legislation like the Racial Discrimination Act is making sure all citizens are equal. All people should be treated equally before the law. This is one of the most fundamental principles that I believe in, not just as a Liberal but as an Australian. I fundamentally believe that nobody should get any legal privileges or rights based on their ethnicity, their racial background, their sexuality, their gender or anything else. All Australians are equal. Let's start with that proposition: all Australians are equal.”
“I am proud to stand up and speak on this Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2025. I want to start by acknowledging the previous speaker and the speaker before them, who was speaking on a different matter. Because when we are talking about the defence of our country we are talking about a social contract. We are talking about how we keep our country united, about how we keep our country focused and about how we lean into the future to make sure every Australian feels a sense of investment about the future of our nation, an equal sense of confidence about who we are as a people and that everyone feels an equal share of responsibility in whatever capacity it is to be able to stand up for the future of our country.”
“I'm so excited that he was part of this important program and that I had the opportunity to read out his speech. Most importantly, Lenny believes in Australia. He believes in its future, and he believes in its capacity to be part of building a better future for future generations. He believes that we can do better, not just for himself but for every child who dreams of a future filled with opportunity, safety and hope. Congratulations, Lenny.”
“Energy bills keep rising and rising, and for some reason we are so focused on climate change that we rebut against nuclear power which provide safe and affordable energy. That's my outline for a better Tomorrow for Australia, for the future of millions of kids. Lenny's words are a call to action. Not only does he marry the challenges we face, but he looks to solutions. He's a reminder that the decisions we make in these walls don't just shape the present; they shape the future as well. Lenny has seen the challenges we face—rising crime, cost-of-living pressures and energy insecurity—but he also sees those solutions and believes we can see through them and lead through them, and that's our task. He believes in the power of community, in the importance of fairness and safety and in the promise of innovation.”
“Programs like this can change the outlook for these small groups of reoffending youths in our area and will in turn have a positive impact in creating safer communities. Another reason Australia has been negatively impacted by crime is because of our weak bail laws. This is particularly in Victoria. It states in Bail Act 1977, If one is granted bail they must abide by the laws of probation. It seems that this is ignored. If we can't change the outcome at the root cause for these criminals, we must protect our communities by enforcing stricter probation and bail laws. For a better Australia we also need cheap and reliable energy. Soon, kids from my generation will not have the same opportunities that previous generations had in Australia because of cost-of-living pressure.”
“Each year, the Raise Our Voice competition invites young Australians to answer a powerful question: what steps should the government take today to build a better tomorrow for young Australians? In Goldstein, that voice belongs to Leonard Callegari, a grade 6 student from St Agnes' Primary School in Highett who lives in Hampton East. I had the pleasure of meeting Lenny and his mum in the Goldstein electorate office last week. His submission, titled 'An Australian opportunity', is a passionate call for action. Here is Leonard's vision for a better Australia: The Australian youth crime rate has skyrocketed in these past few years. A proven way to tackle crime is by creating localised sport and community programs. Children and teens who participate in these types of programs are less likely to reoffend.”
“My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Under Labor's administration of the CFMEU, whistleblowers are saying that organised crime figures have a 'stronger position, perhaps even stronger than they had 14 or 15 months ago'.”
“So, yes, we're moving this amendment because we clearly believe in it. We proudly believe in it. We believe strongly in backing small business every step of the way and in fighting for small business every step of the way. We will be unrelenting in standing up for small business every step of the way. If the government had any rational thought, they would be backing the amendment every step of the way.”
“It is where they find their hunger, their thirst, their ambition and their dreams. When that's suffocated because Labor simply don't care—Labor's objective prioritises getting as much money as possible into super funds so that their mates can pay off cartel kickbacks and pay their fund managers bigger bonuses at the expense of small businesses—they are trading off the ambitions and the dreams of young Australians to feed themselves. It's not just immoral. It is wrong. And it's why this amendment is so important. Not only does it go to the heart of an economic transition that will help small business survive; it goes to the heart of the type of economy we want—an economy built from the foundations of enterprise, initiative and hard work rather than the socialist model of top-down corporatism and statism.”
“And they are not just at risk of insolvency in terms of going to ASIC and saying, 'We can't do this anymore.' Not only can that potentially deny the people who run those businesses their future economic success and their capacity to afford their own superannuation. But what goes with that, if those companies go down and those small businesses go down, is their existing employees and, of course, their superannuation and their wages. Small businesses are the starting gate of opportunity for so many young Australians. It is the first step on the ladder of economic opportunity. Small business jobs are often the first gateway to full participation in the Australian economy—the participation that we want. It is where young Australians get the skills, the training, the knowledge and the enculturation into a business environment.”
“So often, small-business people, who are aspiring to get ahead and back others, have had to find ways to make sure that their staff are paid on time. They always pay their staff before they pay themselves—always. And that is always something that's lost on this government; it doesn't care. And the same goes with super. Enabling small business the breathing space to find their pathway to conform with the law has been met by the Labor Party with: 'Stuff them. That doesn't matter.' We know from public reports produced by some of the biggest payroll companies in the world, like MYOB—companies that so many small businesses depend on—that 22.6 per cent of businesses are at risk of insolvency.”
“Every Australian is paying for the consequences of this reckless Labor government and its reckless spending program, and they're paying it through higher interest rates, today. One of the worst things we could see is small businesses collapsing because the government simply won't implement this reform with enough lead time to help small businesses adjust. Deputy Speaker Young, I know you understand small business, because you've been in it yourself. When you're waiting for revenue to come in—and sometimes people aren't paying you as fast as they want, whether it is the Commonwealth, the state government, a big business or another small business who are waiting to be paid themselves—you have to finance costs from your own account.”
“The government's own advice from the Treasury was that this bill needed 18 months to be implemented so that small businesses didn't go broke, because there is no super on jobs that don't exist when a small business collapses. We already have record insolvencies for small business in this country. We already have the lowest private sector jobs growth in the history of this country. We already have, nationwide, eight out of 10 jobs being created only because of taxpayer revenue. This government is fuelling inflation in the process. It's using debt to finance expenditure today to prop up job numbers, which is fuelling inflation, which means Australians are paying higher interest rates because of this government's reckless fiscal policy. They pretend their economic program is working when, in fact, it is failing and fuelling inflation today.”
“You should control it and it should be paid with your wages. We look at it and see an empowerment for you, but we want to make sure that it doesn't impoverish small businesses on the road towards that future. One of the things the Labor Party doesn't care about is small business. With the greatest of respect, they managed to come up with a minister responsible for small business, but we know she has no say at the cabinet table. Because they're not part of the right faction or they're not part of the right union or they're not part of the right state—whatever it is—many ministers who might have something worthwhile to say are silenced on the issues that matter to the future direction of this country, and we know that from this legislation.”
“It's so perverse it's beautiful, because, literally, the mafia could not design a system with such legality and seemingly such lawful sanction as that circle of life. Labor Party MPs get elected. They vote for more income to go into industry super funds. Industry super funds give, through marketing expenses, more cartel kickbacks to unions. Unions donate to the Labor Party to campaign to get elected to this chamber and keep repeating the circle, the cartel kickback circle of life. That is the labour movement, whereas we look at it and say: how do young Australians earn their own money, own their own destiny and control their own future? That's what we believe in, so, when we want young Australians to have their super fund, we want them to own their own destiny. When you look at this bill, you should be able to say that it's your money.”
“When we talk about a bill like this, what we're talking about is whether Australians own their own money or not, whether they control their own money or not and whether they can then go on and use their own money or not. But, of course, the Labor Party is not interested in achieving that. Their motivation and their objective is how they get as much money as possible into the funds they and their mates control, because, when they get that money into those funds, they can then use it for the cartel kickbacks to the unions that can then be kicked back into the campaign coffers of the Labor Party so they can sit in the chamber and then go on and vote for more money. It is the circle of cartel kickback life. It's almost like the opening of the movie The Lion King .”
“The Labor project is about how they control Australians. But don't worry. To the children in the gallery who want hope and opportunity, I say there is a better way—a better way young Australians can control their money, their ambition and their destiny. It is the Liberal way, because we believe that young Australians can own their own home, control their income, control their super and control their destiny. We believe in backing Australians and any Australian who wants to back themselves. That is the lived ambition of the Liberal dream—a nation of 26 million people standing on their own two feet, appealing to their best hopes and aspiring to something better not just for themselves but for their families and their communities.”
“Then, of course, their preference is that they also control your working life by making sure that you're part of the organised labour system, and, if you choose not to be part of that system and take the diktat from organised unions and organised working organisations, you're shunned and isolated and you're not on the taxpayer's teat or you're not able to get the corrupt kickbacks and cartels that are part of the modern system that we see every day through the press reports of the CFMEU. Then, of course, when you get to retirement, all their questions are about how they impose more cost, more obligations and more responsibility at a time of your life when you can no longer earn an income, because their only pathway is to harvest anything that you have saved and sacrificed to get ahead. That is the Labor project.”
“They want to control the first job and the first opportunity young Australians get so they can control their career pathways and then go on and dictate to them how they save, how they use their wealth and how they're in a position to be able one day to go and secure their retirement. They want to take control of your wealth so they can then go on and decide and determine whether or not you own your own home, and their preference is that, if you are not in state sponsored housing, you are renting from their friends in super funds so that you are serfs to a super fund.”
“Their answer to why young Australians can't afford to buy their own home, because Labor have deliberately and maliciously taken their wages and thrown them into the future in a way only they can access and control, is and then to say: 'The government should come along and own your home. We'll be the solution. The government should come in and invest in it.' They're building out their control over homeownership while also increasing their control, because that's what the modern Labor project is. The modern Labor project is to control Australians. It doesn't matter what it is; from birth to death, they want to control you. They want to control education so they can indoctrinate the next generation of Australians to think that the state is their parents.”
“They're more likely to start small businesses, lean into the future with confidence, own a share of this nation, want to defend it and conserve its great traditions and its values, and that's the one thing that directly assaults the progressive madness of the modern Labor Party. So they must attack it at its foundations at every step. At the moment you see the insanity of the modern Labor project in their approach to housing and to superannuation. The modern insanity is where Labor likes to chuck an increasingly large chunk of young Australians' wages into a fund they control or their mates control, for their 67th birthday.”
“But they often deferred obligations to contribute, because people understood the biggest financial priority young Australians between the ages of about 18 and 35 had. They voted with their feet. People understood the most important thing you could do for your long term and your working life and your retirement financial security was to own your own home. But, of course, when young Australians own their own home, guess what happens? They're proud, they're independent, they're more likely to go on and form families and be the foundation of the success of this country.”
“Some of us see the deception and some of us will never back down from calling out how much they are seeking to corrode and to eat into the foundations of the ambition and the dreams of the next generation of Australians to simply feed the interests of their friends. Superannuation is a choice. Just to remind you, Deputy Speaker Freelander, superannuation did exist before 1992. Labor don't like to remind you of that. Before 1992, superannuation existed. And, before 1992, did you know that superannuation policies actually allowed you to cash them in to use as a deposit to buy your first home? People fundamentally understood that buying your own home was more important for your retirement security as well as your working life than having a larger balance when you turn 65, at the time, and now 67—logic!”
“Not only are they trying to deny Australians the pathway to save for and buy their first home; it's even worse than that: they then want to use Australian superannuation money to buy homes that super funds own so they can rent them to young Australians so they can be serfs to superannuation funds. It is neofeudalism on a scale that we have never seen before, under the hysterical ideal that it is somehow advancing the interests of Australia. Is the Labor Party the party of serfdom to super funds? You bet, they are! They can boast about it as much as they want in the parliament, but some of us see the con. Some of us see the trick.”
“Until 1992, you would have been told you were absolutely mad, absolutely stark raving bonkers, to think that it was more logical to save for your 67th birthday income than it was to save a deposit to buy your own home, because you get the benefits of buying your own home during your working life and your retirement. It's one of the foundations of economic security and one of the three pillars of retirement security. But that's not good enough for the Labor Party. They wanted to engage in a form of economic social engineering and reverse it because it helps the corrupt interests of the modern Labor movement, where they prioritise superannuation funds so that fund managers can take bigger bonuses, bigger graft and bigger components of people's superannuation money and deny Australians their capacity to buy their first home.”
“As the member for Goldstein—and it's an excellent way that we started this debate—it is wonderful to speak on this piece of legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025, because, as you know, Deputy Speaker Freelander, superannuation is Australians' money. It's Australians' money. It's not the money of the Labor Party. It's not the money of industry super funds. It's not the money of the corrupt cartel kickbacks for the CFMEU. It's not there to be laundered for institutions as they see fit. It is there for Australians as they see fit. That's why we fundamentally believe that Australians should be able to use their super for simple things in the ordinary sequence of life.”
“Labor's abolition of the AAT was a vindictive, malicious and unnecessary attack solely because they didn't get to appoint every single person who sat on it and they wanted to make sure it was like the Fair Work Commission or another organisation where only their people sat on it—because they want to control every single part of the artifice and control the state. Well, sorry, Deputy Speaker Freelander, but we live in a democracy.”
“The AAT, which was doing its job making sure there were proper review processes of administrative decisions, was replaced by a body stacked with his mates that is now slower, more expensive and facing the largest backlog in its history. The caseload has now increased to 67,000 matters, substantially more than was the case when we were last in office. Median case times have now blown out from 30 weeks to 68 weeks under the member for Isaacs and, of course, the current attorney-general. Student visa appeals have risen from around 2,000 cases to more than 40,000, an extraordinary growth by any measure with which one could count.”
“Nobody can see any issues or problems, even though they're directly associating with criminals and organised gangs. But, again, no-one from the Labor party seems to care. Yes, the previous speaker, who spoke before, is right. There are issues around making sure there's transparency, and oversight, and a process that's being followed. But I can well and truly be confident that you're not going to get it from this Labor government. That's why their legislation, which the member for Isaacs introduced in the previous parliament, needs to be fixed—because, despite his promise of a grand future of the Administrative Review Tribunal ushering in a new era of review rights to make sure that there was integrity, trust and transparency sitting behind tribunal hearing processes, it has instead turned into a catastrophe of epic proportions.”
“I am not surprised that this legislation had to be put forward by this government to fix the long litany of, once again, the member for Isaacs's problems. He was very vocal about this legislation today in question time, when anyone dared question the correlation and relationship between the Australian Labor Party and the CFMEU, and was outraged that anybody might highlight that the Labor Party received $7 million worth of funding and that the head of the Victorian branch, who's directly connected to figures like Mick Gatto and John Setka, sits on the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party. I think it's the member for Bruce, who's sitting opposite at the table right now, who also sits with the head of the Victorian division of the CFMEU on the National Executive. But, apparently, there's no issue here!”