Former Labor senator Stephen Conroy has amusingly been interrupted by his cat during a discussion on the pressing matter of interest rates. Mr Conroy joined Sky News' Peter Stefanovic to discuss the RBA’s interest rate decision set to be released later on Tuesday when his pet decided to walk in front of the former senator, his bushy tail visible on screen. Mr Conroy joked the cat had "come to say hello", with Stefanovic laughing and exclaiming, “he’s back”.
The feline then disappeared offscreen and although Mr Conroy resumed his comments Stefanovic joked he couldn’t focus on the matter at hand. “Nothing’s going in, Stephen, I just want to see the cat,” he said. The fluffy animal once more decided to walk in front of the screen and Mr Conroy, defeated, held the animal up to show his face to the camera.
While the cat earned a compliment from Stefanovic who deemed the blue-eyed creature a “beauty”, Mr Conroy playfully said he was a “menace”. It comes as interest rates are expected to be left on hold on Tuesday with economists predicting the cash rate will be kept at 4.35 per cent.
Mr Conroy said the RBA’s modelling was “wrong” and it should be lowering interest rates, arguing inflation was "under control". He said some commentators were “delusional” about the state of the economy and were going to be humiliated over the next few months if interest rates were lowered. " If you didn't have government spending, this economy would be in recession," he said.
“So when Peter Costello and John Howard, when the Liberals stop complaining about the amount of government spending – they want the economy to be in recession so they can then flip the attack and say it's Labor's fault we're in recession. “It's genius political tactic but it needs to be called out.” Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, is currently sitting at 3.
5 per cent according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, down from 3.8 in the June quarter. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared many economists are expecting prices to finally fall back into the Reserve Bank's 2 to 3 per cent target range , as he hailed the Albanese government's "responsible economic management".
"What we've seen over a period of time now is inflation has come off quite substantially," he told Sky News Australia on Sunday. "We are striking the right balance with our responsible economic management, we are broadly on the right path, we are broadly on the right track, and our policies are helping.".
