Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

New Zealand, of course, has substantially higher interest rates than Australia, because New Zealand has had nearly as strong a growth as Australia. But, as I said earlier, Australia has had stronger growth than every country in the OECD and, in living standards, has overtaken all the countries of the G7 except for the United States. Let me make this point: the standard variable mortgage interest rate is 7.8 per cent, and the Reserve Bank noted in its decision that many people pay less than that. That was one of the things that it put into its statement. We can measure that mortgage interest rate against the historical situation in Australia. Under this government, the mortgage interest rate has averaged 7.16 per cent, whereas under the Labor Party it averaged 12¾ per cent.

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