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.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,081 lines we hold for Tim Wilson, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 5 of 22.
“Now we know the truth. Australians went to the ballot box taking the Prime Minister at his word. Fifty times over, red-hot with rage, he said he wouldn't tax houses, he wouldn't tax rents and he wouldn't hit small businesses. Now, entrusted with a supermajority in this parliament, that power has all gone to the Prime Minister's head. This government has ignored the cost of living, continuously, and Australians are looking at this budget and saying: 'What has this got to do with us?”
“What we have is this delusional approach from government, a state of denial about the full consequences of the measures it's introduced. People are profiting, and it is all the wrong people; it's the corrupt entities.”
“When you look at this legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System) Bill 2026—Orwellian as it is called—it's about whether or not there are tax incentives that can be taken advantage of by tobacco and gambling companies. Let's be fair: why would a tobacco company need to take advantage of R&D investments when all of the innovation has been taken care of for them by organised crime gangs? They're the ones investing in the supply chains to profiteer out of the consequences of both the stripping of trademarks from tobacco products and the excise. Why would gambling companies need to do the same when, in practice, gambling companies are the ones that are profiteering off a febrile environment in terms of incentives?”
“We need Australians to be respected to take control of their own lives, and we need their hard work to pay off. We need a policy framework which focuses clearly on how we empower Australians to be able to back themselves—not simply to live with the consequences, slavishly, of factors outside of their control or of a government that's in a state of delusion and that doesn't understand the challenges confronting us. What we need is a government of strength, of confidence and of hope so that, by working together, we can take our nation forward. But that is not what we have. What we've got is a government that is in a state of denial.”
“What we do is come up to the Federation Chamber and see the member for Maribyrnong—and I have no doubt it's in the talking points of others, as well—doing a kind of happy dance on the spot like they're Snoopy, thinking that they're the great heroes saving productivity, fuel and small business. Australians don't feel that way. Instead, they're looking at it and going: 'Well, what's next? If this is the delusion of the government that's supposed to be standing up for me, then I have lost faith in the government.' And that, of course, is where we are right now. Now is the time where we need a government that's going to stand up and fight for the future of this country. More important than that, we need the measures to back-in Australians to be enterprising and to take command of their own destiny.”
“Do you remember, Member for Mitchell, a few weeks ago when the Minister for Climate Change and Energy said that there was no problem and that everybody in the House of Representatives was overegging the situation about fuel? Three days later he went, 'Okay, yes, we're in a national crisis.' I don't say that with any glee. That is the state of denial that has permeated this government. They have a denial on the fuel crisis, a denial on the productivity crisis and now a denial on the small business crisis, as well. This is why Australians are losing faith. We need people to come in here, speak plainly and honestly about the challenges and the realities that Australians—and small businesses, in particular—are facing, and then they need to turn to the government and ask whether they're taking steps and measures to improve the situation.”
“So I imagine a lot of them are looking at yesterday—between the global context and rising prices, the domestic context and record insolvencies, and the challenges of the lowest consumer confidence on record plus increased costs for surcharging, skills and labour—and going, 'This is pretty tough.' But clearly that's falling on deaf ears in at least some of the corridors of Canberra, because I was just told by the member for Maribyrnong that everything's tickety-boo. I actually think we have a responsibility in this parliament to speak plainly and honestly about the state of challenges, particularly in times of crisis, and we're in a time of crisis.”
“Supermarkets, as an example—large retailers, supermarkets particularly—do things on scale, so they have preferential terms with banking. They get very favourable terms in comparison to small businesses, who have to absorb all the costs. So, against a global backdrop of challenges and a domestic backdrop of small business insolvencies, we now have a situation where businesses are being told they need to absorb more costs. Then, on top of that, we had the Fair Work Commission say yesterday that they're going to, over the next four years, increase the wages of 18- to 20-year-olds by 42 per cent. I have no doubt that everyone who's a beneficiary of that is happy about that; that's not in contest. But there's someone who has to pick up the bill associated with that, and that is, of course, small businesses.”
“In addition to the challenges of the Iran conflict and the impact that's having on supply chain and prices, not just in the context of fuels but also in accessing other goods and services in the economy where prices continue to rise, which is putting huge pressure on small businesses—large businesses have the logistics and capacity to be able to adjust around that, but that doesn't mean they don't carry those costs, too—we had the Reserve Bank turn around and say, 'Well, business can basically now absorb all the costs they've been passing on to consumers.' We're all happy that we've seen a ban on surcharging, but let's just remind ourselves that someone picks up the bill and that supermarkets get a disproportionate favour in comparison to small businesses under this plan.”
“We're told about how, under the Albanese government, small businesses have never done it better and how everything's tickety boo with them too. It's not really what the data shows. In fact, a paper by e61 Institute a couple of weeks ago showed a long-term decline in the number of self-employed and small-business people, including people who have small businesses who employ others. We've seen this cascading decline over time, but it's been particularly bad under the Albanese government, sufficient that you literally now have record small-business insolvencies. That doesn't say to me that things are tickety boo under the Albanese government for small business. In fact, yesterday was, I think, one of the most challenging days for small business in this country's history.”
“It's wonderful to be speaking on this legislation, which we are not opposing, but I say so in the context that it's always amusing to hear Labor members of parliament get up and speak about the relevance of legislation to their electorate, while they repeat the same talking points that every other Labor member of parliament repeats, but it rarely operates in reality. We just heard about how productivity has been tickety boo under this government, which is why the Treasurer called a crisis conference on productivity and a roundtable to bring together Australia's leading business minds, plus the ACTU, to come up with a solution to the productivity crisis that apparently doesn't exist because productivity is tickety boo.”
“Australia has had a decade of lost productivity, where the only economic improvement has come as a consequence of population growth, and the standard of living continues to decline. As we head towards the federal budget, so many Australians are going to look at this budget and say, 'Am I going to be better off after the federal budget?' The truth is that, at the moment, the only thing they're going to get is higher taxes to pay for organised crime.”
“April fools on the Australian people for the reality of the Albanese government. We know full well the scale of the price Australians are now paying under the Albanese government. We've seen the highest public spending in 40 years outside of a recession and a pandemic. We've seen inflation continue to rise despite the government saying that we have turned the corner. We've had 14 interest rate rises under Labor, and Australians continue to pay the price of the Albanese government, with $27,000 more in the cost of a mortgage each year. At the same time, we've seen debt race towards a trillion dollars. It started under the 'Padawan Treasurer' and now the Treasurer, where we're seeing up to $50,000 a minute just to service that debt.”
“Despite the National Disability Insurance Agency projecting that 10 per cent of the NDIS is going towards fraud and corruption, the Albanese government has now solved it. Public money is back in safe hands. I'd like to congratulate them on stopping all of the issues around fraud in aged care, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I'd like to congratulate the Albanese government on stopping all of the fraud in the childcare system which is continually being reported. And, of course, I've got to give them full credit and congratulate them on finally stopping all of the public money going to organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel. Congratulations to the Albanese government on all the measures they are taking. Oh, it's 10.18 on 1 April. It's April Fools' Day.”
“I'm going to do something completely contrarian today for this chamber. I am going to congratulate the Albanese government. Let's start by congratulating them on securing enough fuel and solving the Middle East crisis. Australians don't have to worry about fuel. Everything is fine. We have more fuel than we had at the start of this crisis. I'd like to congratulate the Albanese government on introducing a non-inflationary excise cut for fuel and the road user charge. There are no inflationary offsets, but they have managed to achieve the economically impossible, which is to make it non-inflationary—according to the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. I'd like to congratulate the Albanese government on stopping all of the fraud and corruption in the NDIS.”
“Until the government start to take organised crime, corruption and fraud of public programs seriously, and they are not, that they can turn around to the Australian taxpayer and expect people to even pay their current bills let alone ask them to pay bigger bills for new taxes because they have no fiscal constraint and no preparedness to address fiscal program design and to raid the future opportunities and aspirations of Australians to feed the undeserving—being organised crime, corruption and fraud—I think is just frankly incredible. But welcome to the Albanese government, because, when it comes down to it, in a choice between standing up for Australian taxpayers and handing money to organised crime, we know who they'll support.”
“Those members need to reflect on the fact that it is public money that is being used for corrupt and fraudulent purposes. More importantly, within five weeks we all know we're going to come into the parliament and they're going to propose that, while they're indifferent to doing anything about public money going to organised crime, corruption and fraud, they have no hesitation in turning around and adding new taxes onto Australians to fund that organised crime, corruption and fraud. So I think it is so important that we support these basic measures, but I do not think they're the end.”
“I think there's a time where we have to acknowledge that the government has got something wrong. The government is turning around before the next federal budget saying to Australians who have worked hard, saved and sacrificed to get themselves and their families ahead, 'We're going to add extra taxes on you, but we're not going to do anything about handing public money from the Treasury to organise crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel.' I actually think there's something really sick and perverse about that. The tepid measures, by comparison, that the government is seeking to enact with this bill on NDIS fraud and NDIS corruption don't surprise me. But it does disappoint me that Labor members would smugly dismiss such a measure when we're talking about some of the most vulnerable people in the community being taken advantage of.”
“The government is literally introducing integrity and safeguard measures to address the design limitations and problems of the scheme that has led to—in the former minister for disability's own words—organised crime taking advantage of the Australian taxpayer and people with a disability. I don't think that's something that should be smugly dismissed. I think it should be acknowledged, fixed as quickly as possible. The only criticism I have is that this bill does not go far enough. It probably gives a sad reflection on why so many Labor members just shrug with indifference when we talk about $15 billion of money going to organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel. According to them, it is public money and, hey, we can just smugly dismiss the realities of what the Labor government seeks to empower.”
“I'll never stop speaking highly of them because of the important role they play within the community. They bring others in from the community to support people with a disability. The NDIS should be seeking to empower and to support clients to be able to live out their best lives with the community services that they need. But, instead, the NDIS has been allowed to become a honeypot for fraudsters and the corrupt to take advantage of the Australian taxpayer and, of course, people with a disability. The design failure right from the outset has caused huge losses of public money. I see one of the Labor members, who I assume is supporting this bill, smugly replying and dismissing such a comment.”
“One of the biggest problems that they've had is that the NDIS has not been well designed to accommodate and meet the needs of centres like theirs because it doesn't reflect the design, support and cost structures that operate there. So they go out and fundraise, of course, as many disability and other community organisations do. But there's an organisation that the NDIS should be working to empower, frankly, for efficiency, for scale, for service delivery, for better outcomes for people with a disability, for integrity measures. Just about every single thing Bailey House does fulfills an important gap around ownership or control of public money. To be custodians for people with disability to live better lives, Bailey House fulfils that purpose, just like their program Bailey arts fulfils that purpose.”
“And of course we see them across many programs in the disability sector, where the organic development of services designed to support often the most vulnerable in the community have slowly had their capacity corroded because the system has said they no longer fit within how it is run. One of the great community services in the Goldstein electorate is Bailey House. Bailey House is, I think, coming up to its 75th year this year, or is in its 75th year this year. It is a great community organisation supporting people with a disability, in particular residents of nearby suburbs with Down syndrome. I've always been a big supporter of Bailey House. It's an amazing community organisation full of people doing incredible work. They're a support service that existed before the NDIS.”
“But one of the biggest problems when you design these grand centralised systems is that, once you design them, they seemingly work well, at least in terms of the discussion in this parliament and in the documents designed by policymakers. But it's how they're utilised by people on the ground, legitimately or otherwise, that makes the material difference to whether Australians continue to have confidence they're respecting people and they're seeking to empower people to live out their best lives. We've seen this in the context of NDIS. We've seen similar and parallel examples where people in Canberra think they can design programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.”
“By looking at the scale of these businesses located in individual locations that often have no real clear idea of what they are providing but billing the Australian taxpayer for millions of dollars, Drew and Pete are doing a good community service. I hope that the NDIA and the NDIS are paying attention to what those two are doing, because I doubt they have scratched the surface of the scale of the fraud and corruption in the NDIS system. I just wish more people were doing that. As the previous speaker said, we want people with a disability to be able to live bold and confident lives. We want them to be able to live their lives with dignity and choice to the extent that they can do so. That is what the NDIS was designed to achieve—to enable the next generation of Australians to live a more dignified experience than those often in the past.”
“These two, on their social media, are looking specifically at where money is being spent, the seemingly endless number of NDIS providers located in specific communities—often multiple businesses in the same location—billing millions of dollars to the Australian taxpayer, but it's not really clear what these businesses are actually providing the Australian community. Of course everybody has a right to innocence until proven guilty, but that doesn't change the fact that we need people out there specifically looking at where this fraud and corruption is occurring and to stand up for the Australian taxpayer.”
“So we all have an interest in doing something. The problem is one of distributed information. Of course the central authorities, as is always the case with centralised government programs, they think they know all and they can solve all problems if they just seek to investigate it. But, instead, it is people on the ground, and this is where I want to give huge credit to Drew Pavlou and Pete Zogoulas, who are going out there and chasing down people who are very suspect in their NDIS activities.”
“We have penalties for not providing documentation on time. Okay, well, that's providing false or misleading information or disclosure. Yes, all those sorts of things are important and they're considered now, under the bill, a 'serious contravention', a 'significant failure' and a 'systemic pattern of conduct'. The bill supports higher criminal penalties in these cases and increases the maximum penalty to figures in the vicinity of $82,500 to $3 million. But, at the end of the day, it comes down to what is the incentive in place for people to actively support the end of this corruption. We all have an active incentive to end this corruption, because it is Australian taxpayers' money that is being defrauded, Australian taxpayers' money that is going towards corrupt activities and it is hitting some of society's most vulnerable.”
“People with disability are living with the anxiety of the sustainability of the scheme because fraudsters, people who are corrupt, people who seek to steal from the most vulnerable in the community are getting away with that with essentially no real accountability on a scale that is warranted and deserved. When you particularly talk about the scale of the dollar value, the NDIA have put forward projections that up to $5 billion of the $50 billion, or thereabouts, NDIS program is going towards fraud and corruption. When the NDIA say in Senate estimates that the legal system would 'literally be clogged forever' if every single person who was defrauding the program was pursued then we've got a design problem, and I don't think that should shock anybody. The question then becomes, what do we do about it? This bill is a part response to that.”
“As she correctly points out, in the situation that there is a long-term viability problem of the NDIS, someone such as herself, who is a recipient of the NDIS—she's in a situation where there is kind of a change of circumstances—and has Down syndrome, will become the target or live the consequences of any reduction in spending. Meanwhile you have the people who are clearly rorting the system, they are clearly abusing public money, they are clearly abusing public trust, they are clearly also abusing, in many cases, some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. These people have essentially been given free will under this government. It must stop. This is not enough. This bill is a step in the right direction, I'm not arguing against that, but it is not enough.”
“Unfortunately, too many people in Australia now think of the NDIS as the honeypot for corruption. It's actually seen very much as the benchmark of how not to design a program if the objective is to help the people it's designed to serve and be fiscally prudent. I often refer to this, and I have referred to this previously in this place. I won't mention the person by name to respect their privacy. An NDIS recipient, who I regularly see at a train station in Melbourne—I saw her only the other day in the Goldstein electorate—has been one of the most ferocious critics of how the NDIS has operated.”
“I hope and pray that they arrest it properly, because we have a fundamental design problem around how the NDIS operates in detecting issues of fraud and corruption. This is seen very clearly where there's a centralised agency providing significant amounts of public resources that are in theory designed to assist people with a disability. I have someone in my family who's an NDIS recipient. I doubt there isn't a member of parliament here who doesn't have at least part of their extended family in a like set of circumstances. The question is: are they the people who are utilising the NDIS for their capacity to live out a dignified life, or has it become the honeypot for people who see a way to suck at the taxpayer's teat but not deliver any return, value or outcome for the Australian people?”
“I welcome the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill because I fundamentally believe it is overdue and insufficient. It is part of the solution that we need for the deep corruption that has been allowed to permeate the National Disability Insurance Scheme and, of course, the fraud that has occurred where money has been taken from some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the community. It has been allowed to become a honeypot for organised crime fraudsters and people who seek to do ill will against the Australian taxpayer. I think it's incredibly important that integrity measures are introduced, as this bill seeks to do, but I think it is also insufficient when you look at the scale of the fraud and corruption that has been allowed to permeate under this government.”
“My question is to the Treasurer. As a direct result of the government's runaway spending, the average Australian mortgage holder is now paying $27,000 more in interest a year under Labor. Will the Treasurer guarantee that the budget won't add further pressure to inflation and to interest rates?”
“With that, I move: That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "the House notes that: (1) the reduction in fuel excise and corresponding reduction in the heavy vehicle road user charge reflects a policy first proposed by the Opposition; (2) the Government initially denied there was a fuel supply problem in Australia and, by delaying taking action to ensure distribution of fuel to where it was needed, exacerbated price pressures and supply shortages; (3) the Government delayed acting on cost of living relief despite mounting pressure on Australian households, small businesses and transporters; (4) the Government has failed to provide any budget offsets or outline how this measure will be funded, increasing the risk of additional inflationary pressure where the only fuel guaranteed is for inflation, not for farmers or families; (5) within 24 hours of the announcement, the Government's proposed GST arrangements have already fallen into disarray, raising further concerns about fiscal credibility and coordination; (6) uncertainty remains regarding fuel supply security and the risk of heavy-handed market interventions; and (7) Australians deserve timely leadership and responsible economic management during this national fuel crisis".”
“Instead, what we have seen every step of the way is a government that has sought to rig the rules in favour of big companies against small ones, big business against small businesses, big unions against small businesses, big capital against small businesses—and, of course, against Australians, because they don't want to empower Australians to be able to live out their own lives and make decisions to control their own destiny. Now is the time the government must lead. Now the government needs to understand the full consequences of the measures they're introducing across the board—not just this one. At the end of it, the more their economic model is exposed, their model which is to inflate the economy and then tax the inflation, Australians are going to continue to fall further and further behind.”
“Australians need confidence, particularly for small and family businesses and the self-employed, who are looking at the landscape right now and saying, 'We do not know how we are going to keep things going.' We have record small-business insolvencies in this country and we're on track to exceed that record this financial year. They're looking at the future with increasing trepidation and concern about the costs that are rising while the revenue is declining. They need confidence and hope, and what they need is a government that actually understands them and wants to back them in.”
“The Prime Minister is always the last to lead, because his government and his Treasurer don't understand the circumstances they face. And, even worse than that, we've seen the Minister for Climate Change and Energy clearly misunderstanding his role and the impact his decisions are now having on the Australian community—there is no other way you could have gone from having no problem around fuel to declaring a national crisis, to saying there's more fuel than there was at the start of the crisis, to now saying that we're going to have to consider rationing as a nation.”
“We proposed an excise cut of 50 per cent and a change to the road user charge, but we offered inflation offsets; the Albanese government has given no inflation offsets for its excise relief. Everything that they are giving Australians today, they are going to take from them in the future. More importantly, this will come with declines in living standards and, of course, higher taxes. Under the Albanese government, there is plenty of fuel for the inflation fire, just not for farmers and families. What we need is a responsible government, not a government that is always playing catch-up. We need more than just the rhetoric and seeing them chase themselves around to try and prove their relevance in the middle of a national crisis. Australians need hope. They need leadership. They need a leader who isn't just the last.”
“While that happens, Australians get poorer and standards of living decline—all to the benefit of those who want to control the Treasury's purse, because it gives them more control and power over Australians' economic lives. So we offered non-inflationary offsets; the government has not. The government has chosen a path where they are increasing the costs on Australians and Australian households, today and into the future. Along with other measures and other things going on with the economy, it is a really distressing situation where we are increasingly seeing a real upward pressure on inflation, on a scale that I have rarely seen in my adult lifetime, particularly in light of the fact that we have not just had a global pandemic.”
“The government has followed the opposition's calls for a fuel excise cut and a reduction in the road user charge, despite the misleading comments from the Treasurer yesterday in question time, as was clarified by the Leader of the Opposition following question time. We always understood that the most important part of introducing those measures was to make sure that they were not inflationary, so we offered offsets as a condition of our proposal because, if we were going to give Australians excise relief, we didn't want to give with one hand today only to take more from them in the future with the other. What it's revealed is the economic model of the Albanese government: stoke inflation so you can then tax the inflation.”
“The only people who will pay, through higher prices and higher costs are, of course, ordinary Australians. When we, the opposition, put forward a proposal to cut fuel excise, we understood that, if the government just rushed ahead and did it, it risked being inflationary. We understood from their energy rebate schemes, which they said weren't inflationary but proved to be inflationary despite the economic denial by all of the PhDs on the other side of this chamber that they claim give them brilliant insights, that, if you put these sorts of mechanisms in place without offsets, then you will get inflation.”
“I remember the Minister for Climate Change and Energy saying there was no problem around fuel stocks; then saying, three days later, there was a national crisis; then, within a few weeks, boasting that there's more fuel in Australia now than there was at the start of this crisis; and only then, within about another three days, turning around and saying, 'We're now going to consider rationing.' This government is not in control of the situation before the Commonwealth. It does not understand the consequences of what it is doing. It does not seem to understand how supply chains work. It does not understand the essential input that fuels and liquid fuels have in the health of the economy and their impact on not just industry but also ordinary Australians.”
“But instead they're going into this crisis where the government has created a backdrop that, unfortunately, does not give Australians the confidence they need right now, even more so in the lead-up to Easter. What we know is that the government has fundamentally misdiagnosed and misunderstood the scale of the challenge faced by the Australian economy from events overseas—not just from the inflation problem that preceded it. I remember being here only less than a month ago, watching the Minister for Climate Change and Energy say that there were no problems around fuel stocks, and then, within three days, he declared a national crisis.”
“The response from a responsible government would be to turn around, turn down the dial of inflation and take the pressure off the Reserve Bank to force up interest rates. They've done the reverse. They're continuing to pour debt petrol on the inflation fire and daring the Reserve Bank to a fourth and, dare I say it, possibly a fifth rate increase. This is the problem of the fuel crisis Australians are living right now. If it were just in isolation, it would be enormously problematic for Australians. If it were just a fuel crisis for a moment against calm economic waters domestically and internationally, Australians would still be struggling with the situation, but they'd be going into it with confidence in the future for themselves and their families, for their small business or family business or if they were self-employed.”
“Of course, Australians are going to supermarkets and other small businesses that they want to support, expecting to be able to afford to buy the food that they would ordinarily provide for their family, and there's a big question mark around that. Against that backdrop, every bit of inflationary pressure is forcing the hand of the Reserve Bank. It now looks like the government are daring the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates, rather than what they should be doing, which is snuffing out the inflation fire as best they can. We've already had one interest rate hike this year as a consequence of data from last year. I think most people are now expecting it to increase, tragically. Yesterday, Westpac talked about three potential interest rate hikes this year alone.”
“As a consequence, we are going into a very difficult period in our nation's history, weaker than we should be, with inflation that is persistent and undermining and not just corroding wages but leading to spiralling costs, particularly for small businesses and the self-employed, who are heavily exposed to rising costs and already struggling to make ends meet. We have Australians going to supermarkets right now, and they're getting out their red basket or their trolley and wondering whether they can afford the items they need to support themselves and their families, particularly in the lead-up to Easter, traditionally a time of bounty inside a family—and certainly people wishing to do so. We have seafood trucks which are struggling to make ends meet to be able to get food to consumers at a price they can afford.”
“I'm happy to stand in support of this legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026. If you think about Australians looking at the environment of global uncertainty right now, they're looking at global economic conditions; they're looking at, of course, conflict overseas; they're looking at the supply chain factors which have been underestimated by their government; and they're looking, frankly, at the future with a sense of anxiety and concern about where our country is heading, particularly because we had an inflation fire that the government was pouring debt petrol on even before this conflict. The government should have snuffed out the fire of inflation. Instead, they continued to feed it through debt spending.”
“So, rather than support Australians to control their own destiny, Labor would literally prefer to break down the social family unit and break down the very structures of which our society is built so they can control Australians and how they live their lives through the superannuation system. We want people to retire with dignity. We want them to be able to control their own destiny. We support Australians to own their own home. But what we don't support is a system where it's used to launder money to the corrupt CFMEU.”
“We believe in superannuation, but I can sure as hell bet you we do not believe in a system designed to launder money to organised crime, and that is why the Labor Party's approach to superannuation is so bad—because they would rather have people die with 97 per cent of principal intact, which is currently the statistic of what's happening, but deny young Australians the chance to get their first home. In 1992, the age at which young Australians bought their first home was their mid-20s. It's now increasingly in their late 30s, trending towards their 40s. And with buying their home later goes family formation.”
“Every time you look for logical consistency from the Australian Labor Party around superannuation and homeownership, what you find is their attempt to take the maximum take over Australians futures. What they actually want to do is control Australians' futures. The last line of political defence in standing up for Australians to buy their own home, to determine their own destiny, to get a good education, to own their own capital and to go on and save for retirement with dignity is the coalition parties. That's why it's so important to stand up.”