Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I want to say, in a budget context, that this government is committed to a fiscally conservative and responsible approach. We inherited an inflation legacy from the previous government of underlying inflation running at approximately 3.6 per cent, which is well in excess of the band that the Reserve Bank has set in terms of containing inflation and containing upward pressure on interest rates. Higher inflation, a legacy of the previous Liberal government, leads to upward pressure on interest rates.