Ian Verrender

And that is the mechanism that the Reserve Bank uses.

So because they raise that rate, the banks then pass that through the rest of their borrowing and lending activities.

Bearing that in mind, though...

I mean, when you look at mortgages at the moment, I mean, there's a lot of competition out there in the mortgage market, primarily because, you know, we keep talking about the big four, you know, ANZ, NAB, Westpac and the Commonwealth.

But there's a fifth player in the market now and a very aggressive player, and that is Macquarie Bank.

And so they have been out there really, you know, cutting the grass from underneath the two major home lenders, which is Westpac and the Commonwealth.

And there's a lot of competition there.

So, you know,

Obviously, everyone's going to see higher interest rates, but there are deals to be done.

Well, they've got to get the money to be able to lend it out.

It's one way they do it.

Yeah, I think the Treasurer is acutely aware of it.

And I mean, look, in principle, you want to have the government and the Reserve Bank, you know, in lockstep.

working hand in hand.

You don't want a big spending government out there with a major expansionary budget while the Reserve Bank's trying to raise interest rates to slow the economy down.

Now, you know, there's been a long campaign from sections of the media that the government is a big spending government.

And government spending is the highest on record, apart from the times when it was higher, right?

So they...

Look out, you know, forget those times.

It's the highest on record, you know, if you don't count the times when it was the highest on record.