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

My question is to Senator Scullion, representing the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Is the minister aware that recent interest rate hikes are one of the key reasons why young Australians can no longer afford to buy a home? Didn’t the government promise in the 2004 election campaign that it would ‘keep interest rates at record lows’? Isn’t this promise still on the Liberal Party website, even today, as part of an election advertisement titled ‘Economic Journey’? Can the minister confirm that, instead of being at record lows, interest rates have gone up five times in a row since the election, adding $260 a month to repayments on a $300,000 mortgage? Can the minister explain how a government breaking its promise on interest rates five times over helps young families to buy a home?