Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Research shows that Victorians with a mortgage have seen, on average, monthly repayments rise by $1,083 every month. On Monday, when the Prime Minister was asked if he could identify a single Australian paying less on their interest rates, he said, 'It's been a pretty good 10 months.' Why is the Prime Minister so out of touch and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

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

Once again the Treasurer puts on a sad face because he again misses out on a question from the shadow Treasurer. The shadow Treasurer ignores the fact that inflation had taken off before Labor took office. Indeed, on their watch, the March 2022 quarter, inflation jumped by 2.1 per cent, the highest quarterly rise this century. No matter who was in government, the highest rise. After the election it certainly emerged that the former government ignored the Treasury warnings which were there and used its final budget to unleash a desperate vote-buying spending spree, which of course added fuel to the inflation fire. A former government source described it as ordering the entree, the main and the dessert.

They also ignore the fact, when it comes to interest rates, that the former Assistant Treasurer here presided over an interest rate increase that rose five times in a row from 5.5 per cent to 6.75 per cent. So the truth is that the shadow Treasurer opposite pretends that there wasn't inflation before the election, when in fact inflation was having its highest single quarterly increase in this century. He ignores the fact that interest rates began rising on their watch.