Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

That wasn't what I said, Senator Cash. But anyway—on the issue of the bank and their decision today, my quick reading of this, as it's come into question time, is that a lot of the concerns of the bank, in making this decision, have related to private demand growing more quickly than expected. That's why the decisions this government's taken, about how we can provide cost-of-living help to households, much of which you've opposed—whether it be in Medicare, in cutting student debt, in tripling the bulk-billing rate or in some of the energy rebates, which have come off now. This has been our entire strategy: to manage some of the inflation challenge and provide cost-of-living help to households to help them deal with some of that cost-of-living pressure that they've been under. That is the strategy that we had when we came to government, when inflation was running at six per cent and accelerating. It's the strategy that we continue to focus on as we deal with the inflation challenge across the economy.