Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

Well, we have got to get the message through to those government senators. You are just out of touch. At the last election, the Prime Minister ran around the country saying, ‘We’re gonna keep interest rates low.’ Since the election there have been three increases in interest rates. And here, a week and half ago, the Prime Minister is urging the Reserve Bank and advocating that it should increase interest rates. He went on and said, with respect to an increase in interest rates:

That could well be the philosophy of the Reserve Bank, and if it does, it will be hard to criticise that.

Here is the Prime Minister not only urging the Reseve Bank to increase interest rates on Wednesday but also saying you cannot criticise it. What did he do at the last election? He ran around the country saying, ‘We’ll keep interest rates low.’

At least we made one advance today. Senator Minchin acknowledged that when Mr Howard, the Prime Minister, was last Treasurer of this country, interest rates were at 22 per cent. He finally acknowledged what happened when Mr Howard was Treasurer. (Time expired)