Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

As my colleagues are indicating, the Labor Party has a hide to ask questions about interest rates, given its record on this subject. I do not need to remind the Senate that under Labor home mortgage interest rates averaged some 12.75 per cent; under us they are averaging 7.18 per cent. In relation to the very specific question that Senator Sherry has asked, I am advised that recent data on applications for repossession made to the Supreme Court of New South Wales show that 5,368 cases were lodged on the New South Wales repossession list during 2006—10 per cent more than were lodged during 2005. As an estimated share of all New South Wales households with a mortgage, cases lodged on the New South Wales repossession list increased from 0.3 per cent in 2004 to 0.56 per cent in 2006.

As is always the case with Labor questions and Labor assertions, one needs to keep some perspective on these matters. Clearly, there has been some increase in the number of applications for repossession, as Senator Sherry noted, but in terms of proportions we are talking about an increase from 0.3 per cent to 0.56 per cent. So the overwhelming majority of mortgage holders in New South Wales continued to be able to service and handle their mortgages.

I would also point out to Senator Sherry that the phenomenon he points to seems to be largely concentrated in the state of New South Wales. I wonder why that would be! New South Wales is, by far, the worst managed state in the federation, it has the worst performing economy in the federation and it has had the most hopeless state Labor government that this country has probably ever seen. That is what is causing the problem for New South Wales mortgage holders. The management of the New South Wales economy is appalling. To some extent that will have had some impact on the situation with repossessions which, as I say, must be kept in perspective, because we are talking about an increase from 0.3 per cent to 0.56 per cent.