Former prime minister Scott Morrison has bluntly summed up Labor’s economic track record in a six-word social media post.
On Tuesday, the RBA hiked the cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.6 per cent.
Mr Morrison posted on X a picture of an interest rate graph mapped against the prime ministerships since 2006.
He captioned the post: “16 swallows do make a summer.”
Mr Morrison’s play on the proverb “one swallow does not make a summer” implies the 16th rate rise under the Albanese government points to a deeper trend.
On Tuesday afternoon, following the rate rise, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock avoided blaming government spending for the latest interest rate rise.
Ms Bullock blamed “domestic spending and investment” being “stronger than expected” while productivity remained “weak”.
Ms Bullock also pointed to the conflict in the Middle East escalating again in recent weeks, pushing oil prices up.
“This isn’t all about the Middle East conflict. It is making things much worse, but we did start from a position of excess demand anyway, and that’s why we started raising interest rates even before the conflict started,” she said.
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson referenced Ms Bullock’s remarks and said the “primary problem” in the economy was the government’s “spending addiction”.
“Of course there’s international effects, but it doesn’t explain the three increases in interest rates earlier this year, when the rest of the world wasn’t moving,” he told News24.com.au.
“It doesn’t explain the interest rate rise on the February 3 of this year before a single bomb had been dropped on Tehran. What we know is that the primary problem we have, and the Reserve Bank Governor has outlined this, is domestic spending pressure.
“Particularly government spending that has gone on to put pressure on interest rates.”
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