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

I would have thought that as shadow Treasurer the member for Wentworth would have reached a conclusion about the intersection of 10 interest rate rises in a row with the cumulative confidence of the business community, because what those interest rate rises add up to is a huge additional cost to the operation of a business. They also affect, of course, consumers—those who buy the goods and services produced by businesses—and, as a result, that washes through in terms of the impact on the economy.

The second factor I would draw to the honourable member’s attention—and I would draw his attention to the impacts outlined in parallel business confidence surveys in many OECD countries at present—is the wash-through effect of the global financial crisis and the global oil crisis: the third great global oil shock in 30 years, the biggest global oil shock in 30 years. We had interest rate rises, 10 in a row under the previous government—having promised us that interest rates would be kept at?

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