Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. After 13 interest rate rises under Labor, the average Australian mortgage holder is paying more than $23,000 more a year in interest than when the coalition left office. With National Australia Bank now predicting the 14th rate rise under Labor next week and the 15th when they meet again in May, will the Treasurer apologise to struggling mortgage holders for the pressures he is imposing on them?

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

I wondered if he was still here; I'm pleased to learn that he is. He's got a lot of nerve asking about interest rates when, only a couple of days into his pretty disastrous stint as shadow Treasurer, he called for the end of the Reserve Bank's dual mandate. When he called for the end of the Reserve Bank's dual mandate, what he was calling for was higher interest rates and higher unemployment. He made that call within only a matter of days of being appointed the shadow Treasurer. Even by the standards of this shadow Treasurer, that is a pretty appalling stuff-up. If he wants to ask me about interest rates then he should fess up and tell the Australian people he wants higher interest rates and higher unemployment at the same time. That would be the effect—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the Treasurer was just saying, 'If he wants to ask me a question about interest rates'—it's difficult, but, as we've done before on a point of order, I'll give the member for Goldstein a fair go.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Point of order—relevance. We're now a minute into the answer, and he hasn't addressed the subject.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, yes, but that's not the point of that point of order. He's got three minutes to answer your question. You can't get up and ask about relevance just because he hasn't answered a question in a minute; that's not really the point of that point of order. It's about explaining if he was talking about something else. If the Treasurer is getting up and saying, 'He asked me a question about interest rates,' and he's answering it, then it's hard to use that point of order. Get it? Good.

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

That would be the effect of the shadow Treasurer's call becoming a reality—higher interest rates and higher unemployment. The second point I would make is that no responsible treasurer comments on or feeds speculation about future movements in interest rates. There are good reasons why treasurers don't do that. If only the shadow Treasurer was as responsible to stick to the convention, which has applied to economic spokespeople from both sides of the parliament over a long period of time.

The third thing I would say is that he has conveniently left out from his question the fact that, in the course of the last year, we also saw three interest rate cuts. When interest rates were coming down, I don't remember the shadow treasurer saying it was all about the government. I respect the independence of the Reserve Bank, and that extends to not commenting on the future movement in rates. I also think that the Reserve Bank's dual mandate is very important because it means that the Reserve Bank is focused on jobs—the impact on real people and real communities—at the same time as they engage in this fight against inflation.

When it comes to inflation—I have acknowledged on a number of occasions that we had an inflation challenge before the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, but the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, as the Prime Minister has pointed out earlier in question time, makes that challenge harder rather than easier. When it comes to fighting inflation, those opposite had it north of 6 per cent and rising. We've had it much lower. We know that it's still a challenge in our economy, and that's why we're focused on it.