Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. How can the Prime Minister claim that working families in Australia have never been better off when Reserve Bank figures show that a record 11.7 per cent of families’ disposable income now goes on interest payments—70 per cent higher than the equivalent figure five years ago?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would have thought that, as a result of changed economic circumstances, including the fact that people, partly due to low interest rates, are borrowing more and buying more expensive houses, there would be some variation in the figure.