Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right; that is exactly right. The question you have to ask yourself is: why is it slowing? The economy is slowing off the back of 12 interest rate rises in a row. Why did the Reserve Bank put interest rates up 12 times in a row? You have to ask yourself that question. Did they wake up one morning and think: ‘Hey, I would like to put more pain on the people of Australia, make them have to pay more for their mortgage than they did before?’ No. They did that to slow the economy because inflation was growing higher by the day. That is why the economy is slowing, because of 12 interest rate rises in a row. And who is responsible for that? The now opposition.

Like every economy in the world, we have been affected by the global credit crunch. The Prime Minister has mentioned in this House more than once that five of the G-7 countries are experiencing negative or zero growth, but all of this has been compounded in Australia by the negligence of the now opposition—10 interest rate rises in a row and the highest inflation in 16 years. To the people in my electorate, that translates, in real terms, into an extra $400 a week out of their wallet or out of their purse. What is the upshot of that? More people are losing their homes today to repossession than occurred during the recession—more today than 18 years ago. That is the consequence of 12 interest rate rises in a row, which have made it harder to borrow and less likely that people will borrow, because of the lower return on investment. That is what is sapping confidence. Everything the previous government did only fuelled growth. They continued to fuel the budget year after year—growing by four per cent. They were like the Imelda Marcos of Australian politics—they just had to get that extra pair of shoes.

Maybe I could refer to Ronald Reagan, one of the champions of those opposite. This is what Ronald Reagan, the old trickle-down champion, said about inflation:

Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

On that basis, you would think the opposition should be charged with aiding and abetting, because what they did was put more pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates and mugged the Australian public to the tune of $400 a month.

This government is doing the responsible thing. We are acting responsibly to increase the surplus, doing what the Reserve Bank wanted us to do, making their job easier and giving them room to make decisions like the one they did today, and we are investing in the things that the Reserve Bank asked the opposition to do 20 times—investing in skills and infrastructure that will make cities work better and make business more efficient.

What are the opposition doing? They are doing a good job of standing up for people who want to buy a luxury car, they are doing a good job of standing up for the distillers in the Senate and they also feel pretty sorry for the banks. I cast my mind back to April, when the Leader of the Opposition said that we should feel sorry for the banks because they have to repossess houses too. This is what he said at the Financial Services Institute of Australia:

... anyone that suggests that it’s not equally a significant experience for those who are the lenders misunderstands the nature of what you do and how many of you do it.

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