Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

This is the weekly trailing out of a tired old interest rates question with a false premise. The false premise, of course, is what we said to the Australian people at the last election. We said to the Australian people at the last election that they could be confident that a coalition government would ensure that interest rates were lower than they would be under a Labor government. We have honoured that pledge. It remains astounding that interest rates today are lower than they ever were in the 13 years of the Labor government.

Interest rates are lower today than they were when we came into government. The average mortgage interest rate under us is much lower than it ever was under the last Labor government. There is an obvious answer as to why that is. It is the responsible economic management of this government which has kept interest rates low, unlike that of the previous Labor government, which lost control of the economy and brought on the recession we had to have and the 17 per cent interest rates that threw people out of their houses and their businesses and threw hundreds of thousands of people onto the dole. It was a disgraceful period of government.

We are proud of our record in government of keeping interest rates much lower than they were under the previous Labor government. We will again go to the people pledging honestly that they can be sure that under a coalition government interest rates will be lower than they ever would be under a Labor government.