Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to inform the House of the report from the International Monetary Fund which says that the Australian economy is on a sound footing and has praised the government’s management of the global financial crisis and its strategy for returning the budget to a surplus. We have all worked very hard in this government to keep people employed, to keep people in their homes and in their businesses. I plead with the banks not to raise interest rates beyond the official rate set by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

We all acknowledge that this is a two-speed economy and that we have to be vigilant and work very hard, but the people who can least afford a rise in interest rates are those who have mortgages and those in small businesses around this country who need the support of their bankers, lenders and financiers, to ensure they survive and grow their businesses and keep people employed. As a government we have worked very hard to make sure that is the case. We want to keep people in jobs, we want to keep people in their homes and we want to keep people in their businesses but we need the banks to help us. I plead with the banks today not to profit-take, not to profiteer, not to outrageously raise interest rates beyond what is reasonable, beyond what the Reserve Bank of Australia does. The banks can afford to do this, given their record profits. This government supported the banks in their darkest hours and banks should return that favour to the taxpayers who funded their current profits.