Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

These are the figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia. Of course, the Prime Minister wants to deflect attention from this. We know about this Prime Minister: he is the doyen of deception, the master of misinformation. Every time he gets into trouble he has to find somebody else to blame. Of course, his latest tactic is to say, ‘If the states released more land, we would not have such a problem with such high house prices and such large mortgages.’ He wants to talk about anything other than interest rates. That is the Prime Minister’s new motto: ‘Anything but interest rates.’ You can see it on the whiteboard in his office: ‘Talk about anything other than interest rates.’ And it is interest rates that are really having a tremendous impact not only on people buying houses but also on small business—but that is a topic for another day.

Labor is happy to have a balanced debate about all the factors that influence the housing market. In John Howard’s world, when things go right it is all down to him and when things go wrong it is always someone else’s fault. What are the real implications if the states and the private sector were to take John Howard’s advice seriously?

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