John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

No. The speech of the member for Macquarie continued the very pious and sanctimonious contribution that was made by the minister, who promptly left the chamber after delivering his lecture to us. This is the same old mantra that is engaged in by the government. It shows how out of touch, stale and arrogant this government is. It is not dealing with the issues. The minister gave a very shoddy and shifty speech, giving us a pious lecture on interest rates under Labor. Did he or the member for Macquarie say anything in relation to the Prime Minister’s form when he was Treasurer and had high housing interest rates? I believe the cash rate then was about 22 per cent. Did he say anything about that? Of course he did not. Did he say anything about the dishonesty of the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party to this day—perpetuated last week and again today by the member for Macquarie—in claiming that they would keep interest rates at record lows? That still stands. No, of course he did not. Did the minister acknowledge that since the last election there have been five consecutive interest rate rises and that the government has failed in its promise to keep interest rates at record lows? Of course he did not. The minister, like the member for Macquarie, exonerated himself and then proceeded to leave the chamber in a typical out-of-touch fashion. The minister left the chamber.

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