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

It is very important to acknowledge the impact of these policies when it comes to people at the local level right around Australia. For example, in Australia at the moment if you have a $300,000 mortgage you are paying $4,500 less a year in repayments. That is the benefit of lower interest rates—and our interest rates are far lower than anything ever achieved by those opposite. When those opposite were in power there were 10 interest rate rises in a row, after they had promised to keep them at record lows.

When it comes to jobs, when it comes to interest rates, when it comes to investment, Australians know that our economic fundamentals are among the strongest in the world. That is very important given the uncertainty in the global economy. What we need here is an understanding of the facts and an understanding of what good policy is. Scare campaigns will not produce the security that Australian families demand. There is a clear contrast here between a government which is putting in place a range of policies to support employment, putting in place good fiscal policy to ensure there is investment in this country, and the scare campaign from those opposite—a scare campaign which is deeply irresponsible.

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