The Prime Minister has denied Labor’s policies are responsible for this week’s latest interest rate rise, declaring “international pressures as well as domestic demand” cannot be ignored for Australia’s high inflation.
Speaking on the sidelines of the CHOGM, Anthony Albanese said the government would take “appropriate action” in the mid-year budget update to help curb the problem, but insisted Labor had “always been fiscally responsible”.
On Tuesday the Reserve Bank hiked interest rates for the fifth time this year to 4.85 per cent, the highest level since late 2008, with Governor Michele Bullock blaming high public and private demand across Australia for the move.
“We will take appropriate action. We won’t rip money out of health or schools,” Mr Albanese told reporters in the Caribbean after meeting with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney.
“It’s not a full budget. The budget’s in May. But we make statements, and in every one of them, we produce savings.”
Responding for the first time to the rate hike, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor accused the Prime Minister of being “in denial” over the cause of soaring inflation, which he insists is homegrown.
“We’ve got a Prime Minister who is always in denial,” Mr Taylor told Seven’s Sunrise on Wednesday.
“He was in denial about falling off a stage. He’s certainly in denial about the causes of interest rates and inflation.”
“The Reserve Bank Governor [Michele Bullock] called it out yesterday. She said interest rates aren’t going up because of oil prices, because of the war in the Middle East.
“The reality is they’re going up because [the] government has lost control of its spending, and it needs to get back in control of that spending.”
Following the RBA’s decision on Tuesday to lift interest rates to an 18 year high, Ms Bullock warned the economic conditions could make 2027 particularly difficult for Australians.
“It is going to make people feel like it’s a recession because they feel poorer, their spending can’t grow very quickly because their incomes aren’t growing very quickly,” the RBA Governor said.
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