Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

and he interjects that I should apologise to the governor. The only people in here verballing the governor sit over there.

I say this about the view that the shadow Treasurer has quoted from David Koch. If the budget position is the sole determinant of inflation and interest rates, then I assume the shadow Treasurer and the person he quoted held the same view when inflation was coming down last year and interest rates were cut three times. But no, they didn't. That, I think, exposes the hypocrisy of those opposite who pretend that when inflation's coming down and interest rates are being cut, it has nothing to do with the government, but when inflation ticks up in the second half of the year and interest rates go up, all of a sudden it's 100 per cent driven by the government's budget position.

Now, if we pick up and run with the shadow Treasurer's own logic, then the fact that they just took to the election a policy for bigger deficits and more debt means they are conceding that if they had won the election, inflation would be higher and interest rates would be higher as well. They can't have it both ways in either respect. They can't say one thing about last year and another thing about this year. They can't say budgets are the primary determinant of prices in the economy only when inflation ticked up towards the end of last year.

I was also asked about—

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