Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The chickens have really come home to roost this week for the Howard government. What we have seen this week is not only an interest rate rise but another interest rate rise to hurt all the mortgage holders of this country. All the families around Australia who are finding it tough to pay their mortgages have only two people to blame: the Prime Minister of this country and his Treasurer. But this really was a watershed question time today. For the first time in 10 years, this Prime Minister refused to answer a question from the shadow Treasurer about interest rates, because he knows that Australian families are now paying more and more for their mortgages—and they are paying more because of the extremely poor economic management by this government.

We have cackling up the back from a member of the government because he obviously, like the member for Wentworth, just thinks that the reaction to this interest rate rise has been overdramatised. I hope all the families in your electorate, all the electors of Moncrieff, know that their member thinks that this interest rate rise is a big joke. Just like the member for Wentworth, the member for Moncrieff thinks this is a big joke. I hope he goes home and tells—

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