Ian Verrender

I mean, clearly, you know, Australians are facing another cost of living crisis

Well, is it a crisis?

I mean, there's a lot of crises these days, aren't there?

Clearly, Australians are going to be facing a really tough time ahead when it comes to the cost of living.

We've had three interest rate hikes.

We've got an inflation level that is rising and could exceed even the levels we've just seen at 4.6%.

So does the government extend that

discount or into the future or does it take it off?

Now, as we saw the last time we had an inflation breakout and we saw the federal government deliver power price rebates, the problem with them, it does provide some relief to people during that period.

But the problem is that it extends the inflation numbers through to long after those rebates have come off.

And so it makes it look as though the inflation problem is much more difficult and it keeps pressure on

on the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates elevated.

And so that is the ongoing question that the government is going to have to answer.

Now, bear in mind as well that the IMF came out just recently and specifically warned the Australian government in the budget to not give cost of living measures, relief measures to ordinary Australians because it does have that inflationary impact.

The other issue, I guess, of course, is

Well, where does the government go?

Does it try to differentiate a little bit between ordinary Australians and business interests?

So do we give relief to farmers and to transport companies to try and ensure that the cost of living is not elevated?

So maybe the discounts...

are extended at that level and not at a household level.