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

which produced 10 interest rate rises in a row under the Liberal Party. But we put up our hand and said we would accept responsibility for dealing with it, and dealing with it we are. We are dealing with it through responsible economic management, by building a strong surplus, a $22 billion surplus, that those opposite want to vandalise. We are also dealing with it by attending to the capacity constraints that those opposite ignored for 12 long years, thereby putting further upward pressure on inflation. On top of that, now we have the worst global conditions in over 25 years.

All of these things are taken into account by the Reserve Bank, but one thing we did in our budget was that we made room to move. We made room to move for the Reserve Bank. They will take their independent decision tomorrow. But of course, if those opposite had their way, there would be no room to move for the Reserve Bank, because they want to vandalise the surplus. Do they have one single coherent answer to the problem of inflation, to do something about inflation and interest rates? Of course they don’t. There is not one consistent economic policy coming from any of those opposite who pretend to know something about economic policy. I was talking here last week about the ‘Three Stooges’ on the other side. There was the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Wentworth and the member for Higgins.

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