The shadow finance minister has claimed Australian mortgage-holders are $20,000 worse off each year, due to the cumulative impact of 12 consecutive interest rate rises before the three most recent cuts.
Senator James Paterson was on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing earlier and was asked about the Reserve Bank’s decision to cut the official interest rate from 3.85 per cent to 3.6 per cent.
James Paterson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The cash rate went as high as 4.35 per cent before it began coming down in February.
“That doesn’t even begin to account for the higher electricity prices, grocery prices, petrol prices and so many other expenses,” Paterson said.
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He was also asked about tax reform ahead of the government’s productivity roundtable next week, and whether the onus was on the opposition to take big ideas to it.
“We are open to tax reform, although we have a different set of principles to what the treasurer outlined. He said any proposal for tax reform is to be budget-neutral or better, but what he means is better for him, higher revenues for him,” he said.
“The obligation is on us to be constructive, and if there are good ideas that come out of this process that the government wants to adopt, we will back them and support them to do that. But what they don’t have is a mandate for higher taxes because they did not say that at the last election. And in fact when we said during the campaign they might increase taxes, they said that was a scare campaign.”
Paterson said the opposition also had to exercise “fiscal discipline”, and say no to policies that would require higher taxes to fund them.
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