Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'm interested in the proposition that inflation is not relevant to interest rates. That seems to be the point of that point of order—that somehow a discussion of inflation is not relevant to interest rates. As the shadow minister knows, interest rates are set independently by the Reserve Bank. What governments can do is to ensure that we engage in the fight against inflation. Unfortunately, when we and the Australian community needed allies in that, instead they've had an opposition determined to oppose the measures that the government is seeking to put in place to fight inflation.

I would remind the shadow minister that without our energy plan electricity prices would have risen 18.8 per cent instead of 8.4 per cent. So they're happy for electricity prices to go up nearly 19 per cent. That's the position of the opposition. Energy price relief that you voted against— (Time expired)