Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Government to stop letting the Reserve Bank of Australia smash the economy, renters and mortgage holders, and to instead use and retain its power to overrule monetary policy decisions of the Reserve Bank, and to directly tackle the causes of inflation by stopping price gouging, capping rent increases and making big corporations pay their fair share of tax.

The fact is that millions of people who rent in Australia and millions of people who hold mortgages in Australia—in particular, young people and their families—are getting absolutely smashed at the moment because of the relentless Reserve Bank rate hikes and the failure of Labor to step in and offer meaningful assistance to control inflation and help people with cost-of-living pressures. Since Labor came to power, in 2022, rates have gone up by a staggering 31 per cent—that is, 31 per cent in the first two years of a Labor government. The average mortgage repayment has increased by an equally staggering $1,667 a month. People are getting smashed, and Labor are sitting on their hands.

Last week the Governor of the Reserve Bank finally conceded that the RBA's rate hikes are pushing some people so close to the brink that they are facing the brutal reality of having to sell their homes, and she noted that low-income people and low-income families are particularly struggling. And of course the reason the Reserve Bank is having to step in and use the only tool it has in its toolkit, in the form of interest rates, is that Labor won't step in and stop corporate price gouging, which is driving inflation. It won't step in and cap rent increases, which are driving inflation. And it won't step in and put in place a corporate superprofits tax, which would disincentivise corporations from price gouging and the obscene profiteering that they are undertaking at the moment. Hiking rates penalises those who are least responsible for inflation and it actually helps the people who are most responsible for inflation—mostly older folks, mostly people with savings—who are increasing their spending at the moment, while people with debt, mostly younger people, are getting smashed for a problem they didn't cause.

The RBA is driving this country closer and closer to a recession, and they're bringing the economy to its knees. The June quarter figures showed that the economy grew by just 1.5 per cent in the last year. Apart from the abnormal 2020-21 pandemic year, that is the worst result since the 1990s recession. If we take out population growth, GDP fell by 0.4 per cent in the June quarter. That is the sixth consecutive quarter of negative GDP per capita growth in Australia. We are in a per capita recession. It is no wonder people are hurting.

Finally, people like Wayne Swan, Minister Gallagher and Minister Chalmers are conceding what the Greens have been saying for many months: that the RBA is smashing the economy. But what Labor won't tell you is that they've got the power to do something about it, to intervene and bring interest rates down. That's what Labor should be doing: intervening, overriding the RBA, bringing down interest rates and providing some relief to the millions of Australians who are getting smashed by food and grocery prices, by rent increases at a staggering rate and by staggering mortgage increases.

Not only is Labor refusing to use that power; they are trying to get rid of it, because they want to take section 11 of the Reserve Bank Act out of the act and remove the power of a democratically elected government to override a bunch of unelected technocrats on the RBA board. And of course the reason Labor wants to get rid of this power is that they want to wipe their hands of any responsibility they have for the economic pain that people are facing and that that they are allowing the RBA to inflict on people.

So, I say to Australians: if you're facing the imminent prospect of having to sell your home or you can't afford to pay your rent or your mortgage bills at the end of the month, know that Labor has the power to intervene and bring down interest rates and meaningfully help you with the cost-of-living crisis that you are experiencing, but Labor is choosing not to do that.