Treasurer Jim Chalmers hit breakfast television news programs on Tuesday morning in an attempt to clarify his view that the Reserve Bank’s interest rate calls were “smashing the economy” and to accuse the Coalition of making political capital out of the independent central bank’s decisions.

Dr Chalmers finds himself at the centre of an increasingly tense debate about whether the government has done enough to help households with cost-of-living concerns at a time when the Reserve Bank has kept rates on hold as it seeks to rein in inflation as part of its core mandate.