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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has doubled down on criticism of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), telling reporters he is not sure that the bank's decision to hike interest rates is actually forcing down inflation.
Andrews has instead said the move is "smashing families", having forced financially stable families into struggle.
"I'm not sure that these rate rises are beating inflation, but they're certainly smashing families," he told reporters this morning.
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"There are people now who are under significant financial pressure – who never thought that would be.
"Such is the shock of these interest rate hikes.
"People who never thought they would need to go to a foodbank are now doing that."
Andrews said the RBA had "many other tools they can use" instead to try to bring down inflation, and the RBA had gone back on promises.
"Everyone was told so definitively that interest rates would not go up," he said.
But Andrews conceded that the RBA Governor Philip Lowe had "a very difficult job to do", adding that he knew him and respected him.
The central bank on Tuesday lifted the official cash rate target by 25 basis points from 3.6 per cent to 3.85 per cent.
Yesterday the premier told media his government had borrowed so much money because it had been falsely assured about interest rates.
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He said state governments were told during a 2020 national cabinet meeting they should "go and borrow" to avoid a 25 per cent unemployment rate.
Andrews said his government was told "interest rates won't be going up" and wouldn't have borrowed as much as it did at the time if told differently.
RBA Governor Philip Lowe said on Tuesday the cost of living in Australia was "still too high", saying it would take "a couple of years" for inflation to hit the RBA's target range of 2 to 3 per cent.
Currently, the annual rate of inflation in Australia is 7 per cent.
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