Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:30): I thank Senator McKim for the question and the two that will follow. The government supports the independence of the Reserve Bank and its responsibility around setting monetary policy. We are in a highly inflationary environment, and that is placing pressure on interest rates, which are rising. We have seen those rises over the last few months. The decision will be made public probably right now while I'm on my feet. In terms of our approach to that, accepting that the RBA has responsibility for monetary policy and targeting inflation within that two to three per cent band while the government has responsibility for fiscal policy and— Senator Rennick: We know that; it's not the solution. Senator GALLAGHER: Thank you, Senator Rennick! If you're so smart, why are you sitting over there on the backbench? The government's view is that it's even more important that we are implementing the policies we took to the election, which include accepting that there are some parts of the inflation problem that are being driven by international effects and that there are things that we should be doing here to make those sensible investments into the productive side of the economy to deal with some of those supply constraints. Over the longer term, that will grow the economy and put downward pressure on the cost of living. That is the plan we took to the election. That is the plan we are going to implement. We accept that these interest rate rises are difficult on households. We constantly look at ways that we can manage some of those impacts on households in the future, including, as we approach the budget process in October, accepting that we are going through the budget, line by line, to make sure that every dollar spent is quality— The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Minister Gallagher. A first supplementary question, Senator McKim?