Opposition leader Angus Taylor has blamed the Albanese Government’s spending for persistent inflation after the Reserve Bank raised the cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.6 per cent.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Taylor rejected the suggestion that the increase was solely the result of the conflict in the Middle East and disruption to global energy markets.
“Interest rates were rising again before the Middle East crisis. And the Reserve Bank Governor made it very clear that there were already pressures in the economy driving up inflation and interest rates before that,” he told the ABC.
Mr Taylor said Australia was experiencing “home-grown inflation” and claimed it now had the highest interest rates among developed countries apart from Iceland.
He argued the Government should be running a surplus to ease pressure on the economy. The Coalition, he said, would introduce a Budget rule requiring new spending to be matched by savings if it returned to office.
“If all of the spending that the Government has committed to since they’ve been in Government was offset, we would have a $22 billion surplus right now,” Mr Taylor said.
“And we would have much lower interest rates on the Reserve Bank’s own models.”
Mr Taylor said possible savings included what he described as waste and unnecessary expenditure on corporate welfare, climate policy and housing bureaucracy. He also said the Coalition would target fraud in programmes including the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
“There is fraud going on and we know that. We’ve seen that in the NDIS and we’ve seen egregious examples and we’ll continue to work on that in lead-up to the election, of course,” he said.
The Opposition leader acknowledged that international developments, including disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, were affecting prices. But he accused Labor of relying too heavily on external events to explain continuing inflation.
“We all want to see the Strait of Hormuz opened up permanently and see oil flowing again, of course. And that is something that we should continue to do what we can to support,” he said.
“But in the end, what we’ve seen is a government looking for excuses for four and a half years.”
Mr Taylor also criticised Treasurer Jim Chalmers over the Government’s response to previous interest rate rises, saying: “Jim Chalmers has been unlucky 16 times… he’s raised interest rates 16 times and each time, he stands up and I’ve stood up following those Reserve Bank decisions most of those times, and each time he stands up and he gives a different excuse.”
“You run out of excuses in the end. This is a Government that’s not in control of inflation and interest rates,” he said.
