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

Well, I can go exactly to it if you want to break it down. Of course, these increases that they'll be paying are on top of the increases that have occurred over recent months from when the RBA started increasing interest rates on 1 May. If you'd like it by state or by size of mortgage, I can I give it to you, but essentially the cumulative increase in monthly repayments for an average mortgage holder in New South Wales is, I think, about $330 extra per month. There is a significant impact on households, no doubt, and we know this stings households, absolutely. But we are living in a highly inflationary environment and the RBA are increasing interest rates. They are increasing interest rates to deal with higher inflationary costs across the economy.

The factors that led to this occurred prior to the last election. As to the factors that led to this, we inherited an economy with an inflation issue and rising interest rates, and these are hitting mortgage holders, without a doubt. That's why our economic plan is more important than ever: to invest in the productive side of the economy to put downward pressure on cost-of-living impacts for households.