Senator BRAGG (New South Wales) (15:14): On a day when interest rates have hit 4.35 per cent, and after 12 interest rate rises under this government, Australians are going to be doing it very hard if they have a mortgage. At least a third of the Australian public are going to be under great pressure. There are definitely going to be Australians that are going to look at this and say, 'That won't affect me directly,' but at least a third of the populace have got a mortgage. By representing a state like New South Wales with a large city like Sydney within it, I know that there are many people across Sydney that have very large mortgages, and they will be looking at this result today, of the interest rates going up, and thinking: 'How am I going to make this all work? How am I going to make it stack up for my own personal circumstances?' The consequence here is that people will in some ways have to economise. In other ways, they will have to have a conversation with their bank. Some people will not be able to continue, and they will lose their homes. And that is the great tragedy of this outcome today. Being in the position of having 12 rate rises in a row is a direct result, a direct consequence, of the government's fiscal policy. We had Senate estimates last week, and I asked the Governor of the Reserve Bank whether the government was running a contractionary fiscal policy. The governor told me that fiscal policy was neutral. So it's not contractionary. So here you are with the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates 12 times under the Labor government, and that same governor, Ms Bullock, is telling the government, 'Cut spending. Help us.' We want the government to run a contractionary fiscal policy because that is the best thing the government can do to reduce pressure on the Reserve Bank, which is now smashing mortgage holders. So, indirectly, the government is making it so much harder for mortgage holders across Australia to keep their homes and to do what they want to do with their own money. This is a hugely regrettable day. A government senator interjecting— Senator BRAGG: Sorry, I didn't hear that? What's that? The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: It's not a conversation, Senator Bragg. It's through me. Senator BRAGG: I couldn't hear it. I just wanted to hear it. I'm sure it would have been a good one. It's always good to try and hear the interjection if you can! Ultimately, though, the Australian people have two major problems with this particular economic strategy the government has deployed. The first is that it is a government for vested interests. The only policies this government is interested in are policies which enrich the unions and the major super funds. That is the policy of the government: vested interests. The unions and the big super funds run this country with Labor in office. The only policies you want to see in this chamber are things the unions and super funds want. Pattern bargaining, the abolition of labour hire, more and more money for their mates in the super funds—the whole government is run for vested interests. The second issue is that when you only have time to look after your best mates—the people who run your pre-selections, fund your campaigns and do everything for you on polling day—you have no time to look after the major issues facing the Australian people. I hate to break it to the government, but the major issue facing most people under 40 in this country is housing. What's happened today with the interest rate going up has made it so much harder for people to stay in a house and even harder for young people to get into a first home. The government says it doesn't care about people and their housing needs. They brush their hands and they laugh off this new interest rate rise today. After 12 interest rate rises under this government, which are going to make a bad situation with housing so much worse, particularly in Sydney, the government can just laugh and sneer, as we saw in question time and now here in the Senate chamber. The disappointing thing here is that the government could be doing a lot to help mortgage holders. But they have chosen to run, as the Reserve Bank governor herself has said, a neutral fiscal policy, when they should be running a contractionary fiscal policy to help the Reserve Bank do its job.