Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Minister, the Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed that Australians are going to face interest rates that stay higher for longer. Meanwhile, markets are predicting a roughly 100 basis-point easing of interest rates in the United States over the remainder of this year alone. Does the government expect Australians to benefit from a comparable rate cut by Christmas, or any rate cut by Christmas or any alleviation in interest rate pressures by Christmas? If not, why is Australia out of step not only with the United States but with so many other comparable economies who are seeing interest rates already coming down?