Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:33): With questions that bad, is it any wonder he hardly ever gets one in this place? Now, it might not have dawned on the shadow Treasurer, nor on the dregs of the former government which are arrayed before us, that— The SPEAKER: Order! I ask the Treasurer to resume his seat and I ask the Manager of Opposition Business to resume his seat. I will just ask the Treasurer not to use that language when referring to the former government, either as the former government or as former members of the government. I call the Treasurer. Dr CHALMERS: Would 'leftovers' be parliamentary, Mr Speaker? The SPEAKER: I ask the Treasurer to get on with his answer. Dr CHALMERS: I thank the shadow Treasurer for a very rare and particularly bad question because, as everybody else in this House knows, interest rates started going up on their watch. For a range of reasons, interest rates started going up from the extraordinary lows that they were at—0.1 per cent—and they're currently at 2.85 per cent— Mr Pasin interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Barker will leave the chamber under standing order 94(a). The member for Barker then left the chamber. Dr CHALMERS: as every member of this House knows, except perhaps the shadow Treasurer. If the shadow Treasurer had any credibility whatsoever, he would acknowledge, first of all, that rates started going up on the former government's watch. Secondly, he would say what members over there said when they started going up during the election, which was interest rates were not going to be at 0.1 per cent forever. So what we've done—and one of the reasons we're proud of the budget we handed down two weeks ago and the shadow Treasurer won't ask me any questions about the budget that was handed down two weeks ago—is we've made sure that we weren't making the inflation problem worse. In fact, we showed remarkable spending restraint, real spending growth was flat, we banked the upward revenue revisions and we invested in the supply chain issues which were pushing inflation up in our economy. Mr Taylor interjecting— Dr CHALMERS: I was asked about interest rates. Mr Taylor interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Hume will cease interjecting, or I won't call the Manager of Opposition Business. I ask him to state the point of order. Mr Fletcher: On relevance, a very direct question: Australians were promised cheaper mortgages. That was your promise. What are you doing about it? The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is referring to interest rates, which in my understanding are linked to mortgages, so I call the Treasurer. Dr CHALMERS: You're already far ahead of the shadow Treasurer, Mr Speaker, if you make that link and far ahead of the Manager of Opposition Business. The point that I'm making is that the budget we handed down two weeks ago was aimed fairly and squarely at this inflation challenge in our economy, which is pushing up interest rates. Inflation was a problem before the election. Interest rates were going up before the election. They have absolutely no credibility if they won't acknowledge that.