Shadow Portfolio — 25 May 2026

Tim Wilson used both the second reading debate on the 2025–2026 Appropriation Bills and Question Time on 25 May to run a tightly coordinated attack on the government's budget, centred on two clusters of tax measures: the new capital gains tax regime and proposed changes to trust taxation. In the second reading debate, Wilson characterised the budget as "born of deceit and broken promises" [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s064], arguing it would raise taxes on small businesses and young Australians and undermine their ability to get ahead [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s064].

He accused the Prime Minister and Treasurer of misleading the public, inflating the economy, and presiding over record small-business insolvencies. The opposition's stated alternative is lower income tax rates, framing the budget as bearing hardest on lower-income earners.

Wilson then carried the same attack lines directly into Question Time. He pressed the Treasurer on whether the new capital gains tax regime — which he described as working poorly for small businesses — had been endorsed by the Cabinet Secretary, citing the Cabinet Secretary's own words: "Start-ups and some small businesses are a real concern, and the point that many small businesses have been making is valid" [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s194].

This question was designed to surface internal government tension on the measure. Wilson then turned to the Prime Minister to demand figures on the additional tax burden facing families caring for people with disabilities, warning that "trusts like hers are set to be slugged with a new 30 per cent tax" [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s198]. The disability trust line extends the opposition's tax-impact argument beyond the small-business frame into a more personal register, targeting a constituency not typically central to budget debates.

The coherence across the two streams is deliberate: the second reading speech established the broad critique — higher taxes, broken promises, cost-of-living harm — and Question Time operationalised it with specific, targeted measures. The CGT question attempts to wedge the government by using a minister's own words against the policy, while the disability trust question is designed to generate a specific dollar figure the opposition can use in subsequent messaging.

Both lines were active on the same day with no prior recorded activity from Wilson since 21 May, indicating this was a concentrated burst of activity around the budget debate.