Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McGrath, for your question. This government understands the pressure that ordinary working Australians are under in terms of their mortgage, and that's especially so since the decision of the independent Reserve Bank to increase interest rates by 25 basis points yesterday. What this government is trying to do is to help those people out by putting downward pressure on interest rates. I can only say it so many times, Senator McGrath, but the reality is that the fact that we were able to deliver the first budget surplus in 15 years is one of the ways in which we are trying to help—