Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I couldn't hear it. I just wanted to hear it. I'm sure it would have been a good one. It's always good to try and hear the interjection if you can!

Ultimately, though, the Australian people have two major problems with this particular economic strategy the government has deployed. The first is that it is a government for vested interests. The only policies this government is interested in are policies which enrich the unions and the major super funds. That is the policy of the government: vested interests. The unions and the big super funds run this country with Labor in office. The only policies you want to see in this chamber are things the unions and super funds want. Pattern bargaining, the abolition of labour hire, more and more money for their mates in the super funds—the whole government is run for vested interests.

The second issue is that when you only have time to look after your best mates—the people who run your pre-selections, fund your campaigns and do everything for you on polling day—you have no time to look after the major issues facing the Australian people. I hate to break it to the government, but the major issue facing most people under 40 in this country is housing. What's happened today with the interest rate going up has made it so much harder for people to stay in a house and even harder for young people to get into a first home. The government says it doesn't care about people and their housing needs. They brush their hands and they laugh off this new interest rate rise today. After 12 interest rate rises under this government, which are going to make a bad situation with housing so much worse, particularly in Sydney, the government can just laugh and sneer, as we saw in question time and now here in the Senate chamber.

The disappointing thing here is that the government could be doing a lot to help mortgage holders. But they have chosen to run, as the Reserve Bank governor herself has said, a neutral fiscal policy, when they should be running a contractionary fiscal policy to help the Reserve Bank do its job.