Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Scullion, representing the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Is the minister aware that recent interest rate hikes are one of the key reasons why young Australians can no longer afford to buy a home? Didn’t the government promise in the 2004 election campaign that it would ‘keep interest rates at record lows’? Isn’t this promise still on the Liberal Party website, even today, as part of an election advertisement titled ‘Economic Journey’? Can the minister confirm that, instead of being at record lows, interest rates have gone up five times in a row since the election, adding $260 a month to repayments on a $300,000 mortgage? Can the minister explain how a government breaking its promise on interest rates five times over helps young families to buy a home?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. Again, I am always a little stunned when Labor comes to this place lecturing us on interest rates.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would have thought those asking the question would have been interested in the answer. In terms of a record, currently the interest rates today are at the highest they have ever been under the Howard government, at 8.3 per cent. Just for the record, the lowest they ever achieved was 8.75 per cent. So the highest they have ever been under us still has not been anywhere near as low as they have been under those opposite, Mr President.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What happened to the record lows?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are record lows. They are indeed record lows. They are far beneath what they were under Labor. Of course, the fundamentals about interest rates are all about how we run the economy. I know that most Australians will not need a reminder that when interest rates were running at 17.5 per cent under Labor, if you could only imagine that, given the tension one feels at around 8 per cent now, how bad it would feel under Labor under 17 per cent. Of course, they talk about housing affordability, they talk about interest rates. It is very hard to buy a home if you do not have a job. Again, one of the single fundamentals today, unemployment, is at 4.3 per cent. Under the other side, it was well over 10 per cent.

It is okay to talk about how people feel the pain, and no doubt people do. It is a very difficult process in terms of buying a home, particularly with respect to your home loan. Of course, interest rates have a part to play in that. But as you would know, Mr President, I have said many times in this process that there are many other aspects that can be controlled by the states and territories. They are stamp duties, land taxes and a whole range of other taxes that have been foisted on the Australian public and have been referred to in this place certainly as a housing affordability tax.

Of course, when we are talking about the economy, there is a whole suite of other reasons why people should look to the choice between the coalition and Labor in the next election. Not only do we provide people with a job but we provide them with jobs under us that have had wage increases—real increases of 22 per cent.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You provide them with a job?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are some interjections from the other side. What did they do? It went down by 1.7 per cent, a 1.7 per cent drop in real wages rather than the 22 per cent growth in real wages. A lot of it is about confidence in the future. I can tell you that someone who is buying a home today and who has a job can be very confident about keeping that job under Work Choices. Those on the other side continue to bring up—and I am very pleased about that—378,000 new jobs since Work Choices. There are 378,000 new families who can now afford to buy their own home.

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I do thank the minister for admitting that interest rates today are higher than they have ever been under his government. But that just goes back to the original question: what happened to the promise to keep interest rates at record lows that the government made three years ago? What happened to that promise, if interest rates are at record highs today? After nine interest rate hikes in a row, which have added $457 a month to a $300,000 mortgage, how will our kids ever be able to afford to buy their own home after your broken promise?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, I will reiterate the circumstances that the government find ourselves in. We find ourselves in a better position than you would ever be under a Labor government. There is no doubt about that. We will continue to ensure that we run a fantastic economy so people have the best chance ever of having a job, the best chance ever of having an increase in wages and the best chance ever of having the lowest interest rates, if you take the choice between the governments, and we will ensure that people who are buying their first home or need to buy another home are best looked after by running, once again, the greatest economy in the free world.