After yesterday’s inflation figures, everyone has turned a sharper eye to the reserve bank and its decision to hold rates, which on economic indicators seemed like the wrong decision then and after the latest inflation figures, well, seems even more wrong.

Jim Chalmers isn’t going to say that out loud – as the Treasurer there is that whole thing about government interference with an independent body – but he is making his view clear regardless. He told ABC News Breakfast this morning:

I’m not going to pre-empt decisions that the Reserve Bank takes independently. I think rate relief is welcome, certainly when interest rates were cut twice already this year, that provided some very, very welcome rate relief for millions of Australians with a mortgage.

So that’s how we see it.

But I don’t want to make predictions or pre-empt the decisions that the Reserve Bank will take. What yesterday’s numbers showed when it comes to those inflation numbers is really quite remarkable progress. The progress that Australians have made together over the course of the last three years on inflation has been outstanding because we have been able to get inflation down at the same time as we keep unemployment low, we have got real wages growing again, but it’s never mission accomplished because the global environment is uncertain. We have got some persistent structural issues in our economy growth, our economy is soft and people are under pressure. That’s why the primary goal, the main priority of the first two weeks of the Parliament sitting, has been to roll out more cost of living help.