Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:51): I thank Senator Paterson for the question. I am not here to give individual mortgagees financial advice on how much— Senator Liddle interjecting— Senator GALLAGHER: It depends on the terms of the mortgage and the amount of the mortgage, clearly. What I would say is that no-one with a mortgage will be happy with the decision of the bank today. I'm just reading through the statement by the Monetary Policy Board, which I'm sure you've all read as well. It does go to the issues that have fed into making their decision today. The PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson? Senator Paterson: On direct relevance, the question was about how much more someone on an average mortgage will pay. If the minister doesn't know, she should just say so. The PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson, the minister is being relevant. Senator Cash interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Minister Gallagher, please continue. Senator GALLAGHER: That wasn't what I said, Senator Cash. But anyway—on the issue of the bank and their decision today, my quick reading of this, as it's come into question time, is that a lot of the concerns of the bank, in making this decision, have related to private demand growing more quickly than expected. That's why the decisions this government's taken, about how we can provide cost-of-living help to households, much of which you've opposed—whether it be in Medicare, in cutting student debt, in tripling the bulk-billing rate or in some of the energy rebates, which have come off now. This has been our entire strategy: to manage some of the inflation challenge and provide cost-of-living help to households to help them deal with some of that cost-of-living pressure that they've been under. That is the strategy that we had when we came to government, when inflation was running at six per cent and accelerating. It's the strategy that we continue to focus on as we deal with the inflation challenge across the economy. The PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson, first supplementary?