Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

The Liberal opposition may not want to know about this, but Australian families have been hurting as a consequence of rising interest rates over the last seven years. For more than seven years we have had increases in interest rates, 10 of them under the previous Liberal government. A quarter of a per cent interest rate rise or drop means the average Australian family, with an average home loan—if the interest rates drop, as they have today by 0.25 per cent or a quarter of a per cent—can gain an average of $40 a month. Forty dollars a month is the gain as a consequence of today’s announcement by the Reserve Bank. Those opposite, the Liberal Party, when in government were fiscally irresponsible and reckless in their approach to budget and spending. This added to inflation, which they ignored for years, and to the pressure on the increase in interest rates that we saw when they were in government. (Time expired)