Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a collective sigh of relief last week when the RBA held off an interest rate hike. But, for so many, this is just a blip in their stress levels—a tiny, symbolic reprieve. Almost two million mortgage holders across Australia are in extreme mortgage stress. Wages are static, sitting at 2009 levels, while everything else goes up. This is untenable and, again, punishes everyday Australians.

The prevailing thesis that inflation will be tackled with interest rate rises simply doesn't stack up. Everyday people are not getting nice pay rises or jet skis. They have no discretionary income to throw around. They hardly have enough to survive. So raising interest rates only penalises those who are already doing it the toughest. It does nothing to curb inflation. It just sucks billions away from mortgage holders to the big banks—a huge transfer of wealth to the banks from everyday, hardworking people. The biggest drivers of inflation right now are rents and house prices. If the government were serious about tackling inflation, they'd freeze rents, stop tax handouts to property investors and get back to the business of building houses. Helping everyday people is the key to tackling inflation, but instead the government doles out more pain to those doing it tough, while giving huge handouts to wealthy property developers and corporations, who are actually driving this crisis.