28/09/2026
Home owners are today hanging in there, waiting for the RBA to kick them in their futile attempt to lower inflation by punishing mortgage holders. They represent only one third of Australians and so have to be hammered very hard to have an impact on inflation.
Even the Treasurer is aware "....... I’m reluctant to blame the workers of this country for our inflation challenge,” he said, adding that Australians would be “apprehensive” about the bank’s deliberations.
The comments from the treasurer, who is under growing pressure from Labor MPs to address inflation and productivity, re-opened a political fight with the opposition over who is to blame for high prices, two years after Chalmers created tension with the RBA by accusing it of “smashing the economy”....."
but is the government doing its share of the heavy lifting? Chris Richardson thinks not. "..... While Chalmers repeatedly insists Labor had improved the budget, veteran budget analyst Chris Richardson said a key metric of the budget’s structural health had deteriorated from a thin surplus when Labor came to power to a deficit of 1.6 per cent of GDP.
“We’ve shifted the budget to a substantially worse position and we’ve papered over it with a revenue rainbow,”
The reality is that inflation is running rampant due to ever increasing government spending which the RBA has not been able to influence, ever increasing costs of living caused by fuel and other costs beyond the control of the RBA and household budgets and the fact that the one third of Aussies who are self funded retirees or who are on benefits have ever more discretionary spending power with each interest rate rise.
Unemployment is rising, the political climate is turning and net after tax investment returns are declining so the RBA should sit on its hands for a month or two and see whether the cpi rate turns down. If it doesn't then it will pressure the Treasurer to actually address the problem.
The treasurer says petrol prices are fuelling inflation as a near-record tax haul adds to scrutiny of Labor’s economic management.
