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) (14:37): Yes, I do agree with the governor on those comments, but I would also draw Senator Patterson's attention to the comments that the governor has been making for some time about wages growth essentially being a handbrake on the economy and advocating for sustainable and sensible wages growth, which we haven't seen now for a decade, and that is a problem in the economy. So, yes, the governor is right to raise concerns around having wages rise exponentially and out of control, but that is not what we are seeing in this country. The problems with inflation are not being driven by wages, because wages haven't been moving anywhere because it was a deliberate design feature of those opposite to keep them suppressed and, at best, stagnant. We have to find the balance. We need sustainable, sensible wages growth for working people— Senator Birmingham: President, a point of order on direct relevance: the quote from the RBA governor that Senator Paterson read had no reference to wages growth, which has been the dominant feature of everything the minister has been going on about for close to a minute now in her time. The question and the quote relate specifically to broader inflationary impacts and expectations across the economy. The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Birmingham. I, like you, have been listening closely to the minister, and I believe that she is being directly relevant to the question. I invite her to continue. Senator GALLAGHER: Thank you, President. I believed I answered the question. I'm happy to deal with it in the supplementary, but I think I have been directly relevant. I think that goes to some of the challenges facing the economy at the moment, which the RBA is dealing with on the monetary side and we are dealing with on the fiscal side: getting that balance right, making sure that we're not adding to inflationary pressures and also making sure that working people are getting a bit of a crack at it and getting some suitable compensation to deal with those increasing costs of living that they're experiencing from rising inflation. I would say the announcement being made by the RBA today will add to some of those pressures on households, and the challenge is for the bank and the government to work hand in hand to make sure we're doing what we can to ease those pressures on people. The PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson, a supplementary question?