‘It’s a silly question’: Wilson won’t weigh in on whether house prices should go up or down
Tim Wilson doesn’t want to say whether house prices should rise or fall, and calls it a “silly question”.
The shadow treasurer tells Sky News the conversation around prices going up and down is “misleading” and that we do still want to see Australians invest in housing, and building more housing.
It’s really a silly question, I mean everybody wants house prices to go down until they’ve bought their first home and then they want them to go up.
What we have at the moment, is a lack of confidence, we have a lack of confidence where the govt is actively undermining incomes, wages, and of course house prices through Jim Chalmers’ active inflation agenda.
There’s a few chunks of data out this morning – we’ve seen auction clearance rates dropping now below 50% across the country, and at the same time polling in Nine newspapers shows 54% of Australians support lower house prices.
Key events
Josh Butler
Business groups warn Greens against “rush” to pass tax changes
Business groups are making a final plea for the Greens to vote down Labor’s capital gains and negative gearing changes, urging the minor party not to “conform to the government’s timetable” on passing the tax reforms this week.
There are growing expectations that the Greens will agree to a deal on the tax changes this week, potentially in exchange for a longer inquiry on the NDIS changes. We’re told that, at this stage, those discussions are ongoing.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), which represents employers and business groups, is writing to all MPs and senators asking them to oppose the changes and warning of what CEO Andrew McKellar said would “damage business investment, damage the Australian economy”.
“You can oppose this bill. You can decline to give it passage. At the very least, you can make significant amendments to ensure that it does not cause damage to the Australian economy in the years ahead,” he said at a press conference today in Parliament House.
“We are urging the Senate to go through that process, we are still very concerned that the changes that the government has foreshadowed last week don’t go far enough.”
McKellar, asked about the likelihood of a deal with the Greens, said he had been seeking to convince the minor party against backing the government.
“Take the time, you don’t have to conform to the government’s timetable on this. Take the time, get it right… we would urge them to take account of that,” he said.
McKellar said senators should not “rush this through”, raising concern that “there hasn’t been proper scrutiny of this legislation.”
“Everybody knows the Senate inquiry process was a whitewash. It hasn’t been handled in the manner that you would expect,” he claimed.
Listen: Greg Jericho on the economic forces pushing Australia towards populism – Full Story podcast
Last week, the Reserve Bank kept interest rates on hold but the decision was followed by a warning that a future rate rise was on the table because prices are still rising too fast. It came as the US and Iran signed an initial agreement to end more than three months of war, which had sent global supply chains into chaos. Meanwhile, Australians are feeling the pinch and deepening economic disaffection has coincided with rising support for Pauline Hanson’s rightwing One Nation party.
Nour Haydar speaks with Greg Jericho about why so many Australians are feeling pessimistic about the economy.
Listen here.
Tom McIlroy
Poll shows Coalition support at lowest level since 2025 election
A new DemosAU poll out this morning shows the Coalition’s public support has collapsed to its lowest level since the 2025 election, the worst result for either Angus Taylor or former leader Sussan Ley.
Published in Capital Brief this morning, the results leave the opposition closer to the Greens than One Nation. Pauline Hanson’s party is on track to become the official opposition on these new numbers, winning between 54 and 63 seats if an election were held today.
The Coalition’s primary vote has slumped five percentage points in just a month to 18%. Labor’s primary moved up a point to 27%, while One Nation’s moved to 30%.
Based on the results, Labor would win between 71 and 81 seats, with the Coalition winning between 4 and 11, and the Greens 0 to 4 seats.
“On these numbers, One Nation would likely fall short of forming government, even with Coalition support, but a further improvement in support, or a further drop for Labor, could change the equation,” DemosAU head of research George Hasanakos said.
PM convenes national cabinet meeting on fuel security
Anthony Albanese has convened a virtual national cabinet meeting this morning, but one premier is joining the PM in Canberra.
Albanese has been spotted by our eagle eyed press gallery photographers with WA premier Roger Cook ahead of the meeting.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland government announces ‘metro bus’ project to replace Gold Coast light rail extension
A bus will replace the cancelled fourth stage of the Gold Coast’s light rail line, ending a 30-year dream on the “glitter strip”.
First proposed in 1996, the Gold Coast light rail line project was designed to link the entire city in a single system, travelling about 40 kilometres from Helensvale train station in the north to the airport in the south.
The first two stages were finished in 2014 and 2017, with the third currently being tested and commissioned.
The LNP government killed Stage 4 in September 2025, after opposition by some residents of the southern Gold Coast.
The premier, David Crisafulli, announced on Monday that the project will be replaced by a bus route branded “the Surfer”, using larger tram-sized vehicles similar to Brisbane’s “metro” bus service.
It’s not clear whether it will get its own lane, segregated from traffic, as the light rail line does.
The announcement means that riders will need to transfer to travel from one end of the glitter strip to the other. It will operate every 10 minutes, compared with the light rail’s 7.5 minutes.
Crisafulli said they will build a small spur line from the northern section of the existing system to connect to a shopping centre.
‘It’s a silly question’: Wilson won’t weigh in on whether house prices should go up or down
Tim Wilson doesn’t want to say whether house prices should rise or fall, and calls it a “silly question”.
The shadow treasurer tells Sky News the conversation around prices going up and down is “misleading” and that we do still want to see Australians invest in housing, and building more housing.
It’s really a silly question, I mean everybody wants house prices to go down until they’ve bought their first home and then they want them to go up.
What we have at the moment, is a lack of confidence, we have a lack of confidence where the govt is actively undermining incomes, wages, and of course house prices through Jim Chalmers’ active inflation agenda.
There’s a few chunks of data out this morning – we’ve seen auction clearance rates dropping now below 50% across the country, and at the same time polling in Nine newspapers shows 54% of Australians support lower house prices.
Greens suspend Senate standing orders on NDIS bill with Coalition support
Over in the Senate this morning, the sitting fortnight has started strong with the Greens moving to suspend standing orders to move a motion calling the NDIS bill “completely friendless”, that it will “have a devastating impact” on disabled people, their families and carers, and for it to be withdrawn by the government.
The Greens disability spokesperson, Jordon Steele-John, has moved the motion and tells the Senate:
Shame on you all. This bill is a disgrace. The fact that the disability community have had to work and expend our time and effort and energy to try and explain to this Labor government why cutting nearly $40bn out of the NDIS is a bad idea – that’s a joke.
Steele-John says the bill will “cost too many lives”.
The Greens have the support of the Coalition to suspend standing orders – which means Labor has lost that vote.
The government is negotiating with the Coalition on the NDIS bill, because the Greens have said they will not support it. But Labor has offered the Greens an extension on the NDIS bill inquiry process to get them over the line on the CGT and negative gearing changes.
Taylor doubles down on decision to oppose tax changes
The Liberal party has promised it won’t negotiate with Labor on its capital gains tax and negative gearing changes (despite the package also containing tax cuts for working Australians), and Angus Taylor has doubled down again today.
Taylor once again uses his “axe the tax” line, while speaking to reporters in Canberra (outside parliament), and accuses Labor of shifting to the “crazy left” by negotiating with the Greens.
We don’t need a carve out. We need an axe, and we’ve said that from the start. Now, it’s true that Labour appears to be doing a dirty deal with the Greens, and you should always be very worried when Labour does a dirty deal with the greens.
He also perhaps momentarily forgets he’s on live TV, saying that Labor “love an excuse” to venture to the left, but realising the line wasn’t delivered as smoothly as it could have, tries again:
Sorry, bump that … They’ve clearly found the excuse to do that here.
As well as “axe the tax”, it seems Taylor has a new tagline for Labor which is “drop the flops”.
Taylor wants ‘more affordable’ housing – does that mean he wants to see prices go up or down?
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says he wants to see house prices “being more affordable”, when asked whether house prices should go up or down.
New data shows the auction clearance rate is falling.
Taylor won’t clarify whether affordability means prices actually going down or just rising more slowly (the later is what the Treasury department has modelled in the budget).
Taylor is continuing his tour around the nation’s capital, doing another press conference in the ‘burbs today (last sitting fortnight he held a few pressers around Canberra, outside Parliament House).
He says:
I want to see house prices being more affordable, I want to see housing being more affordable, and you know how you do that, you have lower interest rates, lower inflation and higher real incomes, higher purchasing power of your pay packet … this government has completely failed on affordability
‘I don’t think KPMG fully understands the problems that they have generated’: Labor senator
Labor senator Deborah O’Neill says the federal government’s powers in regulating the big four accounting firms are “quite limited”, and told RN Breakfast this morning she doesn’t think that KPMG “fully understands the problems they have generated” following alleged misuse of client data.
Internal leaks from a whistleblower first became public when O’Neill shared the their testimony under parliamentary privilege in a speech on 24 March.
KPMG executives were called into parliament on Friday for a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal, which O’Neill called an “extraordinary day” of evidence.
What struck me on reflection was how much we were actually helping KPMG understand exactly how bad this is … I don’t think KPMG fully understands the problems that they have generated. And I don’t know that the team to clean up this mess is there.
So the federal powers at this point are quite limited and Asic can only go after … company auditors. So the problem is that there’s a gap between state and federal for starters. But I think that the finance minister is well across the reality of concerns that were raised after PWC. And I know that the finance minister is going to have a look at what happened with this particular set of bids from KPMG for government work.
Commonwealth waiting for confirmation on second bird flu case
The environment minister, Murray Watt, says there is one case of bird flu in Australia (which the government announced on Friday), but a second is awaiting confirmation.
The first case was detected in WA. The minister said this morning that the main concern is a threat to Australian wildlife, but that the country is “as well prepared as we possibly could be” to deal with it.
Speaking to reporters in the press gallery corridor this morning, Watt said that he’ll convene a meeting with state and territory environment ministers today to discuss the outbreak, and will receive briefings from the chief veterinary officer and threatened species commissioner.
We’ve been working very hard with states, industry, environment groups, scientists over the last couple of years to make sure that we are as well prepared as we possibly could be. As a government, we’ve invested $113m including $11m in the most recent budget in those preparedness efforts. So I feel confident that we’ve got the systems in place, and that we’re working cooperatively with states, territories and others to make sure that we can manage this outbreak if it does get more serious.
Steggall to reintroduce truth in political advertising legislation
Independent MP Zali Steggall will reintroduce her bill to crack down on AI-generated political deepfakes and misleading campaigns this morning.
Mondays are the day private members’ bills are introduced in the lower house, and Steggall will use her slot for fresh truth in political advertising laws.
The government has previously promised to act on truth in political advertising, and even had a bill ready to go in the last parliament – but it never got anywhere.
Parts of One Nation’s “fire the liar” campaign blitz could fall foul of the proposed laws, which would face a fine up to $300,000.
Australians expect honesty from the people asking for their vote, yet in 2026, politicians can still publish misleading advertisements, fake endorsements and AI-generated content designed to deceive voters, without being held accountable.
As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and accessible, the risks to our democracy are growing … Our electoral laws must keep pace.
Under the bill, political ads would have to be truthful, accurate and supported by evidence, and all AI-generated content should be identified.
Auction clearance rates continue to fall
Nick Visser
Auction clearance rates continue to fall and now sit at just 47.4% across the combined capitals, according to the latest data from Cotality.
The figures come just a few days after the RBA decided to keep rates on hold at 4.35% after three consecutive rate hikes earlier in the year.
In Sydney, the clearance rate was 47.4%, in Melbourne 50.6%, but in Brisbane the rate was just 33.3%. Sydney also saw 166 homes withdrawn from auction.
The price of homes is sure to play centre stage in parliament this week as the government debates its changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing, which almost immediately banished property investors from auctions nationwide.
Read more here:
Ryan has ‘no intention’ of joining any ‘teal party’
Independent MP Monique Ryan has ruled herself out (again) of joining any party, with chatter of a new “teal party” recommencing in parliament this week.
The Australian Financial Review is reporting a new group of teal independents could launch as early as this week as a “community” party, countering donation laws that favour the major parties and push back against One Nation – a plan the paper says is being pushed by Zali Steggall.
The idea was first publicly floated last month, with Steggall confirming at the time that discussions between teal independents were taking place – but nothing could yet be announced. Several MPs quickly distanced themselves from the move.
Ryan told the Today show this morning that Australians were fed up with political parties, but she wouldn’t be joining one.
I don’t have any intention of joining a party. I’m very, very happy as an independent.
Tom McIlroy
Women’s groups come out in opposition to bill to add ‘biological and binary’ definitions to Sex Discrimination Act
A coalition of women’s organisations, feminists and community groups have voiced opposition to a push by the Coalition to change the Sex Discrimination Act, in part to create legal definitions around women and men.
Nationals MP Alison Penfold has introduced a private member’s bill to parliament which seeks to restore sex-based language to the act and add definitions described as “biological and binary”.
Penfold’s plan has the support of senior Coalition figures including the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, and Liberal leader, Angus Taylor.
But on Sunday, a group of 20 organisations, including the National Foundation for Australian Women, the Women’s Electoral Lobby, Women’s Legal Services Australia and Working with Women Alliance issued a statement opposing the plan.
“For generations, feminists have been fighting for recognition of the complexity of our lives,” Sally Moyle, chair of the National Foundation for Australian Women, said.
This bill strikes at the core of gender equality by narrowly defining women. It risks taking us back to a time when an idealised definition of ‘the woman’ only allowed us to be caregivers defined by our reproductive function, who should not own property and were not suited to leadership, capable of rational thought or physically strong.
Hume says extension to fuel excise tax cut ‘makes sense’, pushes back on Hanson’s claims about languages spoken at home
Nick Visser
Hume said a temporary extension to the cut to the fuel excise tax “makes sense”, especially around the uncertainty over the strait of Hormuz and its effect on fuel prices. But she said Labor needed to find offsets in the budget to ensure the changes are not “inflationary”. She told RN Breakfast:
We think that a reduced temporary extension is a practical step and that makes sense, particularly with renewed uncertainty around the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.
The budget is already in tatters just one month after it was delivered, and Australians can’t afford a budget that keeps borrowing from the future to pay for today’s politics.
Hume was also asked about her fellow senator Pauline Hanson’s address to the National Press Club last week. Hume was asked about Hanson’s claim that too many people in Australia speak a language other than English at home.
She had this to say:
Look, my partner is Greek. My partner’s mother speaks Greek at home. His family spoke Greek at home. I don’t think it’s affected their social cohesion one little bit. That said, English is our national language and we expect people to be able to speak it proficiently for them to enable to fully participate economically as well as socially.
Source link
#Australia #politics #live #Tim #Wilson #silly #house #prices #debate #property #tax #reform
Post Comment