Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow Treasurer, who refuses to ask a question of the Treasurer even in the context of the Reserve Bank making the decision independently that they did, exposes the disingenuous nature of the question by refusing to acknowledge that interest rates began to rise on their watch. They talk about the rate that's now 3.6 per cent, but it was 6.75 per cent when this bloke was the Assistant Treasurer of Australia. Now, is 6.75 more or less than 3.6? More. Those opposite are so disingenuous. The shadow Treasurer, who asked the question, said as recently as last September:

It is very clear that the world has changed dramatically even in the past few months …

We've seen a rapid shift to an inflationary environment.

Interest rates are bucking decades of downward trends.

That's what he had to say.

On the change in 2025 that we've envisaged on super, the shadow Treasurer was asked repeatedly by David Speers on Insiders to say that it was a bad policy, and he couldn't bring himself to, because it's precisely the policy that he backed when the changes went through in 2016-17. They know frauds when they see one. Those opposite helped create problems with supply chains, and that has fed into inflation. The Reserve Bank governor said that half and up to two-thirds of the inflationary pressures in our economy are about supply chains. Those opposite are coming in here and voting against the National Reconstruction Fund, which will assist with the supply chain issues that we're confronting. They also came in here and voted against the relief that was provided for in December—that $1½ billion of energy price relief.

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