Today’s decision by the Reserve Bank will be extremely difficult news for many Australian families.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said Australians will rightly be concerned about what this means for their budgets and the difficult decisions they may have to make over the coming months.
Australians with a mortgage of $750,000 will now be paying $1,856 more each month. That’s over $22,000 more a year they will need to find.
“Today’s rate hike makes it very clear that Labor’s Budget did nothing to fight inflation,” Mr Taylor said.
“In the three weeks since the budget, we have seen markets, economists, and now the RBA itself react to the Budget by increasing their forecasts for inflation and interest rates.
“Labor has been in government for more than a year now. It’s delivered two budgets.
“This is Labor’s rate rise. This rate rise belongs to the government.
“This is the consequence of a government that has let inflation get out of control and has failed to take leadership on addressing the biggest economic challenge facing Australians.
“Australians cannot afford Labor’s complacency on inflation. The RBA has made it very clear that there is more pain in the pipeline. This is far from over.
“It is clear high inflation and rising interest rates are not coming from the War in Ukraine. They’re not coming from Vladimir Putin. Inflation is coming from Canberra.
“Interest rates will be higher for longer as a result of the decisions of this Labor Government.”