Editorial To Philip Lowe and the RBA , enough is enough

Australia's cost-of-living crisis is hitting young people and low-income earners hard although baby-boomers are doing alright Why? Because so many of the baby boomers do not rely on salaries; so many of that group also are financially more stable than younger groups, with lower debt (including mortgages) and higher savings Does that mean that in an ageing population such as exist in our towns in the wimmera, with so many of us baby-boomers, we should be saying ‘well it does not harm me ver y much, so I don’t care’?

Recent Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS) data reveals that over the past year that food and non-alcoholic beverages are up 8%, travel and accommodation has risen by 25% and medical costs are up 6.7%. Electricity costs continue to rise, up 15 5% Therefore it is no small wonder that we in Australia are experiencing what is happening generally around the world, inflation, which is remaining stubbornly high at around 7-8%

We are told regularly that the only tool that the RBA has to control inflation is interest rates and that is supposed to keep us quiet while they go up and up It is those with mortgages and those on lower incomes that are suffering Basic expenses, those that pretty much all of us cannot do without, that have become expensive, and because those on lower incomes spend a larger part of their budget on non-discretionary items such as housing, petrol and food, they are suffering

Just examining housing costs we know that this expense is the most draining item and whether you’re paying rent, a mortgage, or simple utility bills, spending money on housing is non-negotiable

However, if you're spending more than 30% of your income on housing (such as mortgage repayments or rent), you're considered to be under "housing stress" The numbers in housing stress must be through the roof in that case, as even those renting a modest home in a regional city, where salaries are lower, the rents are crippling

An interesting read came across our desk at North Central News looking at the difference between Cost of Living and Standard of Living

Someone needs to do some research into this because the standard of living of those on lower incomes is falling rapidly while the standard for those on high incomes keeps them out of the reach of the worst of inflations little nasties

Because of this, standard of living is usually a far more comprehensive measure of someone’s circumstances than cost of living

S t a n d a r d o f l i v i n g d i f f e r s w i d e l y a l o n g socio -cultural lines, too, such as race, gender, sexuality, ability, and age It can even give us an idea of someone’s ‘quality of life’, or subjective happiness

However, cost of living is still a ver y important factor in understanding how we live If someone faces a higher cost of living, it follows that their standard of living – and quality of life – might also be impacted

Therefore, when it comes to saving money and maintaining a good standard of living, basic costs are a crucial part of the equation

Many Australians have had enough, and despite aggressively fighting inflation with higher interest rates, pockets of inflation, especially around items many of us need, continue to build It's causing harm whilst the message from the authorities has been ‘hang in there’ because many households are still well placed to absorb the ongoing financial shocks

The RBA aims for an inflation target of between 2 to 3% and we are lead to believe that interest rates will rise until that figure is on the horizon If the R B A c a n n o t d o a n y t h i n g o t h e r t h a n a d j u s t interest rates, then action must be taken from another sector (our politicians) to relief some of this pressure The gap is widening between the have and the have-nots and just raising interest rates is not impacting those that need to have their expenditure curbed