Full Breakdown
Treasury Briefing Highlights Labour’s Growing Anxiety Over Rate Hikes and Productivity
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
On September 16, 2026, Treasurer Jim Chalmers held a closed-door briefing with a small economic policy group of Labor MPs ahead of the Treasury’s intergenerational report due the following week. Chalmers framed the upcoming report as a tool the opposition would use to portray a bleak long-term outlook for Australia.
Official Statements & Responses
Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter of the Reserve Bank was cited as linking the war’s impact to the need for tighter monetary policy.
Verbatim Quotes
- “From an economic point of view, the war in the Middle East, the end of it, can’t come soon enough,” — Treasurer Jim Chalmers
- “People get that we are trying to make a difference,” — Anthony Albanese, prime minister
- “The government has thrown sand in the gears of the industrial relations system and made it harder and more expensive to create productivity growth. In its first term in particular, you’d say every major policy they enacted made it harder to get major productivity growth for business or at least didn’t help,” — Richard Holden, nation UNSW professor
- “I’m sure the intergenerational report will be picked up by the opposition and I’m sure Jim will paint it as his opponents bullshitting, and there will be a degree of truth in that. But we should have a real discussion about what it says,” — Richard Holden, nation UNSW professor
What’s Next
The intergenerational report, the first in three years, will be released on the Monday after the September 16 briefing, setting out economic and social projections for the next 40 years. The Reserve Bank’s scheduled rate rise to 4.6 percent on September 29 will test Labor’s fiscal narrative and likely become a focal point for opposition criticism.