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Family Budgets Slugged Between $132 And $146 More a Month as Interest Rate Rise Hits Gippsland And McMillan Families; Rowe, Maxfield

Jane Rowe ALP candidate for Gippsland

Jane Rowe ALP candidate for Gippsland

Labor candidates for Gippsland and McMillan, Jane Rowe and Christine Maxfield say that local mums and dads will be at the kitchen table tonight working out how they will make ends meet with another interest rate rise.

By Howard Williams - 10th November 2007 - Back to News

"FAMILY BUDGETS SLUGGED BETWEEN $132 AND $146 MORE A MONTH AS ANOTHER INTEREST RATE RISE HITS GIPPSLAND AND MCMILLAN FAMILIES; ROWE, MAXFIELD

 

"When is enough, enough?  Mr Howard"

 

Labor candidates for Gippsland and McMillan, Jane Rowe and Christine Maxfield say that local mums and dads will be at the kitchen table tonight working out how they will make ends meet with another interest rate rise.

 

"With today’s interest rate rise, families across Gippsland are paying around $132 more a month since Mr Howard promised to ‘keep interest rates at record lows’", Ms Rowe said.

 

"Today’s interest rate rise alone will add $22 a month to the typical mortgage in Gippsland".

 

"For many local families, that means one less family outing this month."

 

Labor’s McMillan candidate, Christine Maxfield reminded McMillan voters that this was the sixth straight interest rate rise since Prime Minister John Howard’s misleading promise at the 2004 election.

 

"Mr Howard has well and truly broken that promise."  Mrs Maxfield said.

 

"Mr Howard has lost touch with families in McMillan"

 

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2006 Census shows that the typical mortgage in McMillan is $148,000.  In Gippsland the figure is $134,000.

 

Today’s interest rate rise means mortgage repayments in McMillan and Gippsland are up by:

Ø      between $132 and $146 after six rises since 2004 election;

Ø      and $216 and $239 after 10 straight rises since 2002;

 

Importantly say the two candidates; ‘mortgage payments are now eating up between 20% and 23% of family income in local Gippsland electorates’.

 

"Housing affordability is the worst in decades under the Howard Government." they said.

 

 "And Gippsland families have every right to be concerned when they hear the coalition leadership talk about the ‘next wave if IR reforms"

 

"At the same time Liberal/National industrial relations legislation has made job security more tenuous than at any time in a generation" the two candidates, themselves parents of young families, said.

 

 

 

 

"Today’s news will put more pressure on families already hurting from:

42    Per cent increase in petrol since 2002, a 21 per cent increase in cost of food since 2002 and Child care costs doubling under Mr Howard," said Ms Rowe.

 

"Families have a right to know how Mr Howard can say ‘working families in Australia have never been better off’’ when it’s so hard to make ends meet."

 

Mrs Maxfield explained that Federal Labor had a plan to fight inflation – helping to put downward pressure on interest rates and ease the cost of living pressures on families.

 

"Our plan includes helping families face cost of living pressures by providing:

Ø      a 50% Child Care Tax Rebate,

Ø      up to $7,500 a year on child care costs;

Ø      and a 50% Education Tax Refund on eligible expenses of up to $750 for primary school kids and $1,500 for secondary school students." she said.

 

Contact: Jane Rowe, Christine Maxfield.

 

 

 

 

Media Contact: Jane Rowe 0424 157 584


Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: howardw@aapt.net.au



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