Greens Treasurer spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, has responded to the release of minutes of the 6 June meeting of the RBA which states that some firms were indexing their prices, either implicitly or directly, to past inflation.
“The RBA has finally admitted that corporations are making inflation worse by pegging price increases to high inflation.
“This follows my questioning of Dr Lowe at Senate Estimates about Telstra’s decision to increase bills in line with CPI.
“Twelve interest rate rises in thirteen months have been the wrong response to the problem of corporate profiteering.
“The RBA is inflicting needless pain on renters and mortgage holders and is pushing the country towards a recession.
“It is well past time for the Treasurer to step in and put a ceiling on interest rates.
“The government also needs to get on with tax and competition policy reform to rein in corporate profiteering.
“Consumers are losing out because big corporations are using their market power to gouge prices.
“The government should be taxing and regulating big corporations to rein in inflation”
