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

The working families who Senator George Campbell seeks to represent would be extremely grateful that we are not experiencing 17 per cent interest rates on home loans, which of course they did experience under the former Labor government. They would be very grateful that the standard variable home loan rate has fallen from 10.5 per cent when we were elected to 8.3 per cent now. The interest rate reduction from the time we came to office to now would save around $449 per month in interest charges on an average new mortgage of $245,000. So many Australians do know what it is like to experience high mortgage interest rates under the Labor Party and they would be very grateful for the fact that we have managed through our great management of this economy to reduce home loan mortgage interest rates.