‘Rubbish’: Karl Stefanovic lashes Albo over ‘cop out’ on Today

Karl Stefanovic has hit out at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for refusing to answer one crucial question while “Aussie pockets are burning”.

Anthony Albanese is facing his first major hurdle since his election victory after the Reserve Bank slugged homeowners with a shock “super-sized” rate rise yesterday.

At the June meeting, the RBA caught market watchers off guard by raising the official cash rate by 50 basis points to 0.85 per cent – the biggest jump in more than two decades – with more aggressive hikes in the months ahead a certainty.

But the RBA move coincided with Mr Albanese’s visit to Indonesia – and the Prime Minister refused to answer questions about interest rates, insisting he would only discuss foreign policy while overseas.

“I said on day one, I will not be responding to domestic matters while overseas,” Mr Albanese said.

“I’ll leave that to (Treasurer) Jim Chalmers.”

Mr Chalmers held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, and said the rate rise would stretch household budgets even further at a time when the nation was facing a string of economic challenges.

“We have an incredibly difficult challenge of combinations,” he said.

“High and rising inflation, rising interest rates, falling real wages at a time when our ability to respond to these challenges is constrained by the fact that the budget is absolutely heaving with Liberal debt.”

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Karl Stefanovic has slammed Anthony Albanese. Picture: Channel 9

That move was heavily criticised by Karl Stefanovic during a discussion with Nationals senator Matt Canavan this morning, with the Today host branding the claim a “Bob Hawke defence”.

“It’s the Bob Hawke defence. But that was back in the ‘80s. Hawkey was going clubbing all night, I don’t think Anthony Albanese’s doing that,” Stefanovic said.

“Is that really going to cut it when Aussie pockets are burning?”

Mr Canavan replied that Mr Albanese’s decision was “ridiculous”.

“We live in a connected world where we can do these sort of crosses from anywhere in the world. It doesn’t really matter where you are. It’s not like he’s not getting reports,” he said.

“What, is he waiting for a fax to come through or something about the Reserve Bank minutes? I am sure he has a phone. He has access to email. He should be commenting.

“He should be up to speed with these issues and in tune with what the needs are of the Australian people. I think that’s a total cop-out from Anthony Albanese. I hope that policy doesn’t last.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to comment on the rate rise while overseas in Indonesia. Picture: AP Image/Pool, Alex Ellinghausen

Stefanovic said it appeared Mr Albanese was “ducking questions no matter what rationale is behind it”, while 2GB’s Chris Smith labelled the strategy as “rubbish”.

“You can have a Zoom call and … you have Cabinet in an instant,” he said.

“Rubbish. Him playing the small target so he doesn’t mess up like he did during (the) election campaign.”

Smith said it wasn’t good enough, “especially now that this is a crisis that we have in the country that relates to everyone’s back pocket”.

Tuesday’s rate rise returned the cash rate to its highest level since September 2019 and marked the first back-to-back rate rise in 12 years.

It comes after the RBA caught many off guard last month by raising the cash rate by 25 basis points, from the historic low of 0.1 per cent to 0.35 per cent, in the middle of the election campaign.

The unexpected size of the rate rise sent shockwaves across the country, and provided yet more evidence that all is not well economically.

And clues from the RBA itself – as well as predictions from countless finance experts – indicate yesterday’s hike will be just the tip of the iceberg, with many expecting monthly hikes until at least Christmas at the earliest.