John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I very happily and readily concede that people pay more for their houses now than they did 10 or 20 years ago and as a result they borrow more. It stands to reason that if you are richer with your assets, in order to acquire those assets you have to borrow more money. That is the explanation for what the Reserve Bank said.

See this speech in context