James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher, who's already ready to go, I see! Warren Hogan, an economist at Judo Bank, said on the ABC's 7.30 on Tuesday night: 'A big structural lift in government spending in the past decade, which has continued at pace in the last three years under this current government, is really all about recurrent spending. That, I think, is increasingly looking like a key factor why, ultimately, the problem we be faced with is that interest rates are not high enough to get inflation down.' Does the government take responsibility for the rise in inflation and consequential decisions by the RBA to keep the cash rate high?