June 16, 2026 — 11:08amShadow treasurer Tim Wilson has confronted Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth over the government’s curbing of tax concessions, accusing her of needing to take a breathalyser in a fiery exchange on live TV.Labor is hoping to rush through its budget changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing after swift and viral backlash from the business and startup sector. The reforms will be subject to a second and final day of inquiry on Tuesday – a timeframe that the opposition and business groups have criticised as insufficient to scrutinise the reforms.Rishworth and Wilson appeared together on Nine’s Today show on Tuesday morning, where the government minister was moments into answering her first question about the Senate inquiry when Wilson interrupted to say: “Oh, get real, Amanda.”“Two days is not a timeframe to be able to make submissions,” he said, speaking over Rishworth as she tried to continue her response.Wilson said Rishworth’s claim that stakeholders were given the chance to have their say was “BS”.“Not all of the submissions have been published yet by the parliamentary inquiry. This is a railroad effort,” he said.As Rishworth pointed out that Wilson had argued for a capital gains tax overhaul to improve intergenerational inequity in his book – a frequently deployed attack line from the government, particularly during question time – Wilson told her to “grow up”.“You’re telling me to grow up? All right, good one,” Rishworth retaliated.Wilson said the government was bullying business people into accepting the changes and had lied to the public, while pointing and raising his voice as Rishworth kept saying: “That’s not true.”“Small businesses all around the country are screaming out for help and your answer is to censor and silence them,” Wilson said.Rishworth said that Wilson needed to explain to constituents why he voted against the government’s tax offset, which was bundled in with the more controversial capital gains tax reforms.“You talked about it in your book, pity you can’t live it,” she said.“Amanda needs to get a breathalyser,” Wilson said. “I mean, this is just – we need a reality check on what’s happened. We put into parliament 11 times different forms of tax cuts so Jim Chalmers’ active inflation agenda that constantly increases taxes silently on Australians would be cut out,” Wilson said.The first day of the Senate inquiry heard criticism from business groups that said the changes were rushed and would dampen investment ambition. Independent economist Saul Eslake backed the reforms in principle, but argued that start-ups should be exempt and capital gains be averaged out over a number of years.Finance Minister Katy Gallagher conceded on Tuesday that the government had more explaining to do to get Australians on board.“This is a big tax reform. Tax reform is hard,” Gallagher told Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise.“We have to continue to explain the budget and the reasons why we’ve done it.”Gallagher said that some reactions, such as entrepreneurs threatening to move overseas where taxes were lower, were “unfounded”, and added that first home buyers were already getting more of a look-in at auctions.Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.From our partners