Rates provide dirt in Vic campaign

Interest rate hikes have provided dirty fodder for Victoria's political leaders as
they trade blows in an increasingly grubby election campaign.
Labor lashed the opposition's finance chiefs for not speaking out on the banks
jacking up rates on Wednesday, while Premier John Brumby was accused of trying to
grandstand on the issue.
This is despite state governments having no regulatory powers over the banking and
home loan sector.
Mr Brumby made his mark early, hitting the Melbourne airwaves to condemn the
Commonwealth Bank's decision to lift its interest rate by 0.45 percentage points,
almost double that set by the Reserve Bank.
He later denied he was electioneering and said the banks were posting record
profits, while interest rate hikes hit home owners, farmers and small business hard.
"I was amazed, I thought it was a scandalous decision actually," Mr Brumby said of
the Commonwealth Bank.
"I've never been in the populist business of getting stuck into the banks, I've done
that very, very, very rarely in my public life, but I think their behaviour at the
moment is just inexcusable and frankly it's greedy."
Despite his outrage, Mr Brumby would not say if he would close his personal accounts
with the Commonwealth Bank.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu questioned the premier's sincerity and said he should
"look closer to home" at state government policies that add to the cost of living.
"I think over the last 12 months we've had half a dozen or more interest rate rises
and I'm not sure I've heard the premier say much about that in the past," he said.
"So here we are, day one of the official election campaign and John Brumby's
suddenly got a renewed interest in interest rates."
ALP headquarters later issued a statement from Treasurer John Lenders accusing
shadow treasurer Kim Wells and finance spokesman Robert Clark of keeping silent on
the issue because they owned shares in the major banks and had a conflict of
interest.
"Whose interests are the Liberals really interested in - Victorian families or their
own?" Mr Lenders said in the statement.
Six government MPs and 14 coalition MPs have shares in one or more of the four big
banks, according to the parliamentary Register of Members' Interests.
Opposition scrutiny of government spokesman David Davis, who stands to profit from
the rate hike as a Commonwealth Bank shareholder, said the company had behaved
badly.
But he said Mr Brumby should focus on matters he actually had control over, like
utility prices, and quit the dirty campaign tactics.
"It's a bit hypocritical of John Brumby to be critical of the bank on one hand and
on the other hand have been very active in fuelling the growth of cost of living
pressures on families through electricity and water and gas prices," Mr Davis said.
Mr Brumby and Mr Baillieu both said they would support greater regulation of the
banks to increase competition.