ANTHONY ALBANESE MP  
LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY 
MEMBER FOR GRAYNDLER 

JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN


RBA INTEREST RATES DECISION

 
It was hard enough to make ends meet under Scott Morrison and today it got even harder for millions of Australians.

Even before today’s decision Australians were facing a full-blown costs of living crisis on his watch.

Scott Morrison’s economic credibility was already in tatters, now it’s completely shredded.

After almost a decade of this Liberal-National Government, the costs of essentials are out of control, real wages are falling, and now interest rates are rising by a quarter of a per cent.
 
Everything is going up except wages and now interest rate rises are part of the pain.
 
When things are going well in the economy Scott Morrison takes all the credit, but when things get difficult he takes none of the responsibility.

He can’t have it both ways. 
 
The RBA is an independent body and makes its own decisions on monetary policy free from political interference.

We’ve been responsible and reasonable about the causes of today’s decision.

But governments have a role to play in easing cost of living pressures, and in creating secure jobs which put upward pressure on wages.
 
All Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have is a plan to get them through the election, and one-off payments timed to land during the campaign and end after.
 
Labor has a plan for a better future beyond the election, which is designed to: grow the economy without adding to inflationary pressures; ease cost of living pressures; get real wages growing again; and to get economic bang for buck from a Budget heaving with a trillion dollars in Liberal-National debt.

This Prime Minister and this Government have an excuse for everything and a plan for nothing, and it's hardworking Australians who are paying the price once again.
 
TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022