WA: Carpenter hopes Howard accepts interest rate blame

AAP General News (Australia)
08-08-2007
WA: Carpenter hopes Howard accepts interest rate blame

PERTH, Aug 8 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard should accept responsibility for today's
interest rate rise, West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter says.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has raised the official cash rate by 25 basis points
to 6.5 per cent.

Mr Howard should accept responsibility for the rate rise, Mr Carpenter said.

"There's a lot of pressure in the economy obviously," the premier said.

"The prime minister made interest rates the theme of the last election, he promised
he'd keep them down and he hasn't."

The federal government had placed pressure on the economy by failing to invest in infrastructure,
Mr Carpenter said.

"We've got a federal government that has not invested in infrastructure and so you've
got bottlenecks.

"They've poured money into the cash economy, they are throwing money away left, right
and centre in an election campaign, that's inflationary, that's the problem."

Mr Carpenter launched a scathing attack on Mr Howard yesterday for trying to blame
the debt levels of Labor state governments for the interest rate rise.

AAP ah/lk/apm/bwl

KEYWORD: RATES CARPENTER

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