Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (12:25): On a day where we have crossed the $1 trillion public debt threshold, on a day when we have seen unemployment rise, we have a government that is not focused on improving the economic welfare of the Australian people. We have a government that is only interested in setting up the rules to favour their mates. We heard from members in this chamber only just now about how terrible it is that the rules aren't rigged enough in favour of their mates and not in favour of their donors rather than being concerned about the impact it is going to have on the Australian people.

Ms Aldred interjecting— Mr TIM WILSON: The member for Monash correctly interjects and outlines just how dodgy the rules— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Freelander ): The member should be heard in silence. Mr TIM WILSON: That's cute, Deputy Speaker! However, the member for Monash always has something of value to add to this conversation, and so we welcome her interjection, it being correct, because she is highlighting and reinforcing the central point.

The Australian people need a government that's on their side. At the moment, they have a government which has only one objective: rigging the rules in favour of their friends. They want to give tax concessions and tax benefits to the renewable energy industry, because they are the donors to their movement and to other political movements associated with them.

They can't deliver on things, like a $275 reduction in power bills, that they promised to the Australian people, so their answer is to use public money and move it over to industry to try to reduce costs for them at the expense of the rest of the economy. At every point, this government focuses only on how to favour its friends. We saw it yesterday when the Assistant Treasurer went and gave a speech to the National Press Club.

Lo and behold, all the benefits, all of the subsidies, all of the assistance, all the rules and all the regulations—where did they all go to? They went to their friends in industry super funds while they left actual financial advisers, self-managed superannuants, people who use retail products and anyone who doesn't sit outside the corrupt Labor ecosystem completely adrift.

And now we see this with this bill as well, where they've snuck in what we'll call Easter eggs but, let's face it; could be poison pills, which are taxes, which would be increased on some people while they exempt the industries that they want to prosper and succeed, because it benefits them and they are reinforced by the borrowing that their mates in industry super funds—nudge, nudge, wink, wink—are financing.

So they're trying to rig the rules again to favour their mates. This government has a perverse obsession with how they make sure they get outcomes they want to improve the financial wellbeing of the people associated with them. We know this, of course, because, every time there's a public project that needs public money and it's got the CFMEU involved and they're taking out graft and corruption every step of the way, the Prime Minister opens the chequebook and says, 'How much do you want for that public project' along the way.

We've seen this in Victorian's Big Build, the suburban rail loop, a scheme that's known as involved with corruption and organised crime. The federal government continues to pour money into the scheme. It's often funded by debt.

Yes, this is a Treasury bill and talking about tax is an incredibly important part of it, because tax is something you raise from the public that then gets spent. So what does the government do? They tax the Australian people.

They raise the revenue. They then spend it on public projects, and very often that money has ended up in the hands of organised crime. Even worse than that, we've seen today that the government continues to issue bonds, raise public debt, pass the cost on to future generations and then spend it today.

They stoke inflation, then tax inflation, then spend the inflation in a vicious cycle so the government can keep taking more and more tax revenue silently, without having to change a single law before this country. What we have now is a government run by inflation addicts, inflation junkies. They're tapping their veins trying to find out where they can inject the next round of inflation.

We've got the Prime Minister walking down to the Treasury building and looking to see if there are a couple of shoes hanging from the powerlines ahead, looking to see whether there is any more inflation they can inject into the system that is undermining the Australian people. And what are we seeing? On average, Australians going backwards $1,600 a year in the life of this government.

This government is addicted to spending, and it's addicted to inflation. Any pathway where they can find more money they can take from the Australian people to feed that addiction, to empower themselves, is part of the perpetual cycle that they run. They're not focused on how to grow the economy.

They're not focused on how to build industry. They're not even focused on how to create jobs. Do you remember, once the Labor Party focused on how they create the number of jobs in the economy?

Unemployment is up. Inflation is up. While cost of living continues to rise, standards of living are going backwards under this government.

This is the problem— Mr Giles interjecting— Mr TIM WILSON: We're now hearing the interjections. We heard from the last deputy speaker that no interjections should be welcomed, but we're hearing it now from the Labor Party because it's touching a very raw nerve. They know the inflation addiction that this government has directly undermines the economic welfare of the Australian people.

Their only answer is how they take a bigger chunk of the Australian tax revenue for themselves, and how they do it— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Garland ): The minister, on a point of order? Mr Giles: I think perhaps the speaker could turn to the bill. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would remind the member for Goldstein that we are debating a piece of legislation at the moment and remind the member for Goldstein to remain relevant to that task.

Mr TIM WILSON: Deputy Speaker Garland, I can assure you that inflation is directly connected to government spending and taxation revenue. In fact, I'm constantly reminded of it in the number of times I talk about this government's inflation addiction— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Goldstein, please talk about the bill. Mr TIM WILSON: I am talking about the bill.

I'm constantly reminded in this chamber how members of government seem completely oblivious to the fact that government spending is driving inflation. When government is talking about how you raise the revenue, you can actually talk about how you spend the revenue as well. It's a completely legitimate part of the conversation.

I also know how many Labor members get upset and interject every time we talk about their inflation addiction and how it is corroding the living standards of Australians. This bill talks about how it's going to raise revenue, so everything I'm saying about revenue and expenditure is utterly related, just as the government's inflation addiction is relevant to this bill, because that is what is driving it.

What's driving this isn't the best interests of the Australian people or improving their economic welfare. What is driving this bill is: how does the Labor Party control more of the lives of the Australian people? They've found a secret ploy which is, if they tax more, they then use that tax revenue to spend more.

They do it by raising debt and then spending that as well. They're able to perpetuate a vicious cycle of stoking inflation, then taxing that inflation, then spending that inflation to take more of the Australian people's money. That's why this government is overseeing the biggest collapse in living standards in the advanced world—not a record to be boastful or proud about.

Nothing in this bill seeks to reverse that; it seeks to turbocharge it. What we have is a government that is always looking for its next inflation hit because it wants to keep the cycle going. It can't stop its addiction.

We know from the last federal budget, connected all the way to this bill, which comes in part as a direct result of that federal budget, that they're going to keep finding ways to get a new hit while the Australian people live with the consequences of their inflation addiction. Time's up for this government. The Australian people are sick of the legacy of their active inflation agenda.

They're sick of the ruin and the pain that it is causing. Australians are living it every day through declining living standards—the biggest drop in living standards in the advanced world. Wages have been going backwards by up to $1,600 a year on average since 2022.

In every index, in every data point and by every measure, the Australian people are going backwards. Today, not only have we seen a crossover of the $1 trillion public debt threshold; we've seen unemployment rise as well. We need a change of government.

We need a government that speaks to the hope and aspiration of the Australian people, not more tax rises and the inflation addiction that we're seeing under the Albanese Labor government.