Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today, the Prime Minister's handpicked secretary of the treasury, Jenny Wilkinson, joined every other RBA board member in voting to raise interest rates. When Labor spends, Australians pay. Prime Minister, what does it say about Labor's economic incompetence when its own Treasury secretary is voting to lift rates?

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

I think it reflects a level of desperation on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition that she would go after a wonderful public servant in the way that she just has. Now, the Treasury secretary, under governments of both political persuasions, attends these board meetings as a representative of the Treasury—not the Treasurer, not the government—and they play an important and a meaningful role there. They did when you were in office—when they were in office, Mr Speaker—and they do now. I think it is entirely inappropriate for those opposite to try to drag into this one of the finest public servants that this country has ever seen, especially to do it on the day when we've appointed Sarah Court to be the Chair of ASIC, which means that, under this government, this Prime Minister and this cabinet, for the first time in the history of four major economic institutions in this country, they're led by women—the Treasury for the first time in our history, ASIC for the first time in our history, the Productivity Commission for the first time in our history and the Reserve Bank for the first time in our history. We are proud of the appointments that we have made and the progress that we have made, and those opposite shouldn't try to diminish a very fine public servant, as they just have.