Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, representing the Treasurer. I refer to last week’s decision by the Reserve Bank to lift the interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent. Is the minister aware that a family with an average mortgage of $226,000 will have to find an extra $73 a month to pay for the two interest rate increases the government promised at the last election would not happen? According to the statement by the Reserve Bank, wasn’t the interest rate increase in part a result of what it described as ‘rather limited spare capacity’? Why has the government neglected nation-building investment in infrastructure? Hasn’t that failure led to greater upward pressure on interest rates?