@glasshouse.aus: Today the Reserve Bank raised interest rates. Again. 4.85%, the highest since the global financial crisis. It is the fifth rise this year and the 17th since this government was elected. On election day in May 2022 the cash rate was 0.35%. The big four banks passed on every earlier rise this year in full. Tonight Westpac says its rates are “under review”. If they pass this one on, a $750,000 loan at the average variable rate costs about $124 a month more from today alone, and about $580 a month more than in January. That is more than a quarter’s power bill on Sydney’s default price, every month. The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says his budgets are “not what’s putting upward pressure on inflation”. His own Budget forecasts public demand growing faster than private demand this year, and says four times that it is helping to take pressure off inflation. Rates have gone up twice since. He compares tax with the Howard and Costello years, never spending: federal spending is almost 27% of GDP, above every one of their years, and stays there to 2030 on his own forecasts. A Capital Brief poll found 47% of voters blame government spending. Put to the Governor, Michele Bullock, her answer was: “Independence is a two-way street. I don’t tell them what to do with fiscal policy, they don’t tell me what to do with interest rates.” The Bank will not blame the government. But the Bank’s Sarah Hunter says spending is “definitely part of the picture”, and economist Saul Eslake puts it plainly: what governments give in cost of living relief, the Reserve Bank takes away in higher interest rates. Five rate rises this year. And $122 billion of deficits pencilled in for this year and the next three. Sources: RBA, 3 Nov 2026; RBA table F6; Budget Paper 1 2026-27; ABS National Accounts; AER DMO 2026-27; Capital Brief/DemosAU; the banks’ own pages. Repayments are our estimate, 30 years, principal and interest, full pass-through. Footage: ABC News. Not financial advice. #interestrates #RBA #mortgage #auspol

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Tuesday 03 November 2026 08:45:56 GMT