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

I thank Senator Bilyk for the supplementary. Obviously, higher interest rates primarily affect mortgage holders, but there's an impact on savers as well. As the Treasurer pointed out earlier today, he's found it disappointing that higher interest rates weren't necessarily being passed on to savers and he will raise this directly with the banks, and I'm sure that those opposite would support that approach. The Treasurer has said that savers have been the principal victims of interest rates when they've been incredibly low and that they should be the beneficiaries of rising interest rates. He said they've been doing it tough for some time now and it's time they got a bit of relief, and the government certainly supports that approach.