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

What households across Australia are concerned about is the availability of credit and the cost of credit. The NAB came out in recent days saying:

While our current cost of funds remain at a historical high, policy measures announced by the Australian Government earlier this month have started to have a positive impact on the credit market.

We welcome this new development and anticipate that we will see some relief in the significantly higher premium we are currently paying for wholesale funds.

There were similar remarks by the ANZ. I say to those opposite that the real concerns out there are (1) the stability of the financial system, (2) making sure that there is sufficient credit to flow by way of loans to businesses and small businesses and (3) to ensure that you provide sufficient support for this financial system in a time of global financial stress to enable our major commercial banks to provide maximum pass-through of official reductions in interest rates onto households.

Those are the concerns which galvanise this side of the House—the concerns of superannuants, the concerns of households dealing with mortgages and interest rates and the concerns of pensioners trying to survive in the current climate. Those opposite are interested instead in short-term political points, and I think they stand condemned for it.

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