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

My question is to Senator Minchin, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Is the minister aware that today’s statement on monetary policy by the Reserve Bank expresses serious concerns about inflation, stating that ‘inflation appears likely to be somewhat higher than earlier expected’? Doesn’t the Reserve Bank statement note that this means that ‘further monetary policy tightening could be required’? Can the minister confirm that this means that further interest rate hikes could occur in coming months, on top of the five increases that have already occurred since the Liberal government promised it would ‘keep interest rates at record lows’? What would be the impact of further rate hikes on working families, many of whom are already spending a third of their income paying off their home loans?