Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Before the election, the Prime Minister promised he would deliver cheaper mortgages. Since the election, mortgage repayments have increased by around $1,400 a month for a typical Australian family, and every economic decision the government has taken has pushed interest rates higher than they otherwise would be. Why do Australian families always have to pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a reality of a world where there's inflation. I think Australians understand that. There's a lot of upward pressure on interest rates at the moment. They're not my words; they're his—the Leader of the Opposition. They are the words of the Leader of the Opposition on 3 May 2022, when interest rates began to rise. The shadow Treasurer had a bit to say, too. He said, 'The problems are caused by factors outside our control.' He said: 'We're facing circumstances in what's happening in the Ukraine and Russia that were not expected and were very hard to predict. These pressures are driven by extenuating circumstances.'

Now, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has tried this on a number of times. What she is talking about is a shared equity scheme—where, instead of 100 per cent of a mortgage being paid by the mortgage holder, less than 100 per cent of the mortgage is paid by the mortgage holder. Shared equity is what she is talking about. The deputy leader is a member of the New South Wales branch of the Liberal Party, of course. And this week the Liberal Party in New South Wales, the government of Dominic Perrottet, announced a shared equity scheme, joining Victoria and joining Western Australia. I mean, for goodness sake, don't ask questions here—maybe you should get on the phone to the New South Wales premier and to the others who had to save your preselection last time around.