Queensland’s two top government members have called on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates next week,with one suggesting banks should pre-empt the move and start lowering their own.
Across social media and speaking to journalists,Premier Steven Miles said better-than-expected meant rates should be reduced as quickly as they since May 2022.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles (right) and deputy Cameron Dick (left) have now both called on the RBA to cut official interest rates.AAP
“I’d also make this point:there was no rule that says the banks can’t cut rates in advance of the RBA,” Miles said.
“These big four banks are making billions of dollars in profits off our mortgages,off Queensland’s mortgages,and they should cut rates as soon as they possibly can.”
How we got here
After inflation peaked at 7.8 per cent in late 2022,having already launched the RBA on its recent rate hiking run in an effort to control it,Australian Bureau of Statistics data this week showed inflation had – and further than expected – to 4.1 per cent across the year to December.
Why it matters
The effect of rate rises moving through the economy is generally said to take between,meaning of the final RBA decisions late last year are yet to be felt by borrowers.
Such wisdom has helped the RBA could now cut the official interest rates by half a percentage point by Christmas – saving $201 a month on the roughly average mortgage of $600,000. But remains.
Inflation in Australia is falling faster than expected,deepening expectations the Reserve Bank will keep interest rates on hold when it meets next week.
But inflation,even if low,still means prices are rising. And the price of new homes,up 1.5 per cent in the December quarter,was one of the in this week’s ABS data.
As both renters and owner occupiers grapple with and pushing some into homelessness,the state government will release a long-awaited next week.
What they said
Deputy Premier Cameron Dick,also the state’s Treasurer,first seized on the inflation data to argue in comments to media the RBA needed to “get on with” cutting interest rates.
suit on Thursday,saying he could still “have an opinion on[the RBA’s] decisions” while it was an independent body.
The pair,along with Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon,held a media conference at a Fortitude Valley homelessness support centre to announce a 20 per cent.
“No one should be sleeping on the streets,in a tent,or in their car ... that’s why the first part of our government’s Homes for Queenslanders plan aims to deal with this complex issue,” Miles said.
Another point of view
LNP opposition housing spokesperson Tim Mander brushed off the need for a new aiming to improve the state’s homeless support system.
Mander suggested there was one simple reason for the homelessness problem. “We have it because we do not have enough houses,” Mander said.
Get the inside word on the news,sport,food,people and places Brisbane is talking about..