Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bilyk for the question. It's an important question that affects all of us—many Australians, particularly those with mortgages but also those with savings accounts.

The independent Reserve Bank has made its decision today to increase interest rates by another 50 basis points, bringing the cash rate to 1.85 per cent. Australians knew that this was coming but it doesn't make it any easier to handle. The cycle of rate rises commenced before the election, in response to the inflationary pressures that emerged before the election. Average homeowners owing $330,000 will have to find about $90 a month more for repayments on top of the $220 extra in repayments since early May. For Australians with a typical $500,000 mortgage, it's an extra $140 a month in addition to the extra $335 they've had to find since early May. This won't come as a surprise to many but it will still be a shock to many households. Families will have to make more hard decisions about how to balance the household budget in the face of pressures like higher grocery prices and higher power prices, which the member for Hume kept hidden from them prior to the election.

As a government, we are focusing on the economic plan we took to the election campaign. It makes sensible investments in child care, in skills and in digital services, using the National Reconstruction Fund, making child care cheaper and lowering the price of energy through the Powering Australia plan. These are the commitments that we made in the election; these are the commitments we will do. We will monitor all of these in the lead-up to the October budget and the decisions we take there, which will be primarily about fixing the waste and rorts of the previous government and implementing the election commitments that we made.