Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

There are millions of mortgage holders and renters right now across this country getting smashed by an economic system that they are not responsible for, and yet they are asked to pick up the pieces in skipping groceries and in choosing between feeding their kids and paying the rent. When it comes down to it, since 2022, rents have gone up a staggering 31 per cent. Monthly mortgage repayments, on average, have gone up by $1,600. What's happened is that a coalition of the Labor and Liberal parties have decided that they are okay with the Reserve Bank putting up interest rates and forcing ordinary people to pay for an inflation crisis that they had nothing to do with. Here is the reality: the Labor government right now could override the Reserve Bank—they have that power in legislation right now—and force the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates. And, yet, they choose not to. By doing that, they have decided to enshrine and protect an economic system that always punishes ordinary and everyday people for an inflation crisis they are not responsible for.

Let's be clear about what's driving inflation right now and why costs are going up. It is corporate price gouging. The IMF has pointed out that it is corporate price gouging that is one of the principal drivers of inflation right now. It is Coles and Woolworths using their duopoly power to drive up grocery bills. It is landlords using the fact that Labor refuses to cap rent increases to drive up rents right now. In fact, even the RBA says that one of the principal drivers of the inflation crisis right now is skyrocketing rents. They are increasing at close to twice the rate of standard inflation. Labor could stop that by freezing and capping rent increases. They choose not to and instead what they do is allow the Reserve Bank to jack up interest rates and punish ordinary and everyday people.

Let's be clear. You might be watching this at home right now, stressed out of your mind about how you're going to meet your next month's mortgage repayment and stressed out of your mind about how you're going to cop another rent increase. You might be watching the news as the Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock is saying that she doesn't foresee an interest rate cut in the next few months. You might start to think, 'Well, how is this my fault?' You might start to think: 'Maybe I need to cut back more. Maybe I should have done more to pay off my mortgage earlier. Maybe I should have worked harder.' Don't think that, because the reality is that it is not your fault. It is not your fault. It is the fault of a political and economic system that always punishes ordinary and everyday people. It always chooses to punish them and allow big corporations to get away with making massive corporate profits.

In this same period, big corporations have made over $100 billion in crisis profits. That's according to Oxfam. That includes the National Australia Bank. It includes Woolworths. Those are financial institutions and big corporations that are making excess profits by using their monopoly and duopoly powers to drive up prices and punish ordinary and everyday people.

Here's how this economic system works. First, you have a big set of big corporations, banks, Woolworths, Coles. They drive up prices, taking advantage of their enormous economic power. That drives up prices and that drives up inflation. Then what happens, when inflation gets high, is the Reserve Bank kicks into gear and says, 'The way we're going to tackle this is to put up interest rates.' The effect of putting up interest rates is punishing mortgage holders and renters. Their intention is—and let's be very clear about this—to push mortgage holders and renters into financial pain to reduce their capacity to spend money in the economy. They claim that this will somehow decrease inflation. But let's talk about what they're decreasing spending on: food, rent, health, housing costs and food for kids.

When I was running a free meal program earlier this year, we had a nice family come up to us. They were dressed very nicely. They sat down with us. They were eating one of our free dinners. I asked them, 'Why are you here?' I thought that maybe they were there to talk to me about some issues in their local community. They had two young kids with them. They were living in Carina Heights. They turned to me and said, 'Well, look, to be honest, any night where we don't have to fork out and pay to feed our kids is another night we're more likely to meet our mortgage payments.' That shouldn't be happening in a wealthy country like Australia.

Politics is about choices. There is no political, economic or technical reason why we couldn't force the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates right now. A real plan to tackle inflation could be cutting interest rates The effect of cutting interest rates right now would be relieving pressure on mortgage holders, allowing them and renters to feed their kids and not have to make tough choices and not be forced to sell their homes, which is what Michele Bullock, the Reserve Bank governor, said they might have to do.

Instead what we could do is crack down on price gouging in supermarkets. We could tax the superprofits of big corporations and punish them for price gouging ordinary Australians. We could use that revenue to provide dental and mental health under Medicare and incentivise the states to freeze and cap rent increases. Indeed, one of the best ways to tackle inflation right now would be to cap rent increases. One of the key drivers of the inflation crisis is rents. We could do that, and we could relieve the pressure on millions of people.

Why is it that in this country it's always ordinary and everyday people who have to pick up the pieces of an economic system they're not responsible for? Why is it always that there is a single mum in this country having to choose between feeding her kids and paying the rent, while the Commonwealth Bank records a $9.69 billion profit? Why is it that in the middle of one of the worst housing crises we have seen in this country's history, while there are millions of people struggling to meet their mortgage payments or their rents, why is it precisely at that moment that the Commonwealth Bank can come out and record an over $9 billion profit?

Imagine what we could do with $9 billion. We could bring dental into Medicare. We could bring mental health into Medicare. We could put a down payment on bringing back free university and scrapping student debt. We could invest in building enough public housing. Instead, it's going into the profit margins of the Commonwealth Bank, which has made those profits because the Reserve Bank has put up interest rates, driving up mortgage costs that allow those big four banks to price gouge ordinary Australians, make more from mortgages, make more off that human misery and screw over ordinary Australians. The Greens are fighting hard to protect the current power that the federal government has to override the Reserve Bank of Australia and cut interest rates, because that is an important element of a democracy.

What interest rates are charged is a fundamental economic question in this country, and that should be subject to democratic review. I would argue that what Labor is attempting to do in scrapping the power that they have right now to override the Reserve Bank is to wash their hands of the responsibility of one of the key decisions in our economy and pretend they have nothing to do with it. But let' be very clear: in refusing to override the Reserve Bank of Australia and in attempting to get rid of that power, they are endorsing a political and economic system that time and again asked the people that are already doing it tough to suffer more while bankers, big corporations and politicians benefit by billions of dollars.

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