Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I find it remarkable that the opposition asks questions about housing, given that for 12 years there was, firstly, no minister for housing, secondly, no department of housing and, thirdly, no housing policy on the part of those opposite. When it comes to practical measures to assist those who are seeking to buy their first home, the first obstacle they are up against is high interest rates. The party of new-found compassion, those opposite, seem to overlook the fact that interest rates rose 10 times in a row in their period of office. The reason interest rates rose 10 times in a row and have risen twice since then is, in large measure, that the previous government allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle. When we took over office, inflation was running at a 16-year high and we had interest rates that were the second highest in the developed world.

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