One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to resign, accusing him of failing Australians after the Reserve Bank delivered its fourth interest-rate increase of 2026 and pushed the cash rate to a 15-year high.
Hanson intensified her attack on the Treasurer following Tuesday’s decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to increase the cash rate by another 25 basis points, from 4.35 per cent to 4.60 per cent.
“Treasurer Jim Chalmers has failed Australians. He should resign,” Hanson said in a statement on social media.
Her intervention comes as mortgage holders face another increase in repayments and households continue to deal with elevated prices for housing, food, energy, insurance and other essentials.
The RBA’s September decision was unanimous and marked the fourth 25-basis-point increase this year. The cash rate began 2026 at 3.60 per cent before rising to 3.85 per cent in February, 4.10 per cent in March, 4.35 per cent in May and now 4.60 per cent.
The latest increase takes the cash rate to its highest level since 2011 and leaves many borrowers facing substantially higher repayments than they were paying at the beginning of the year.
Hanson has sought to make cost-of-living pressures and economic management central to One Nation’s political campaign, arguing that excessive government expenditure and weak productivity have contributed to Australia’s inflation problem.
Following the RBA decision, she blamed the Albanese Government’s economic management rather than accepting the government’s argument that much of the latest inflation pressure had come from international events. Other opposition figures have also criticised government spending, while economists continue to debate how much of Australia’s inflation reflects domestic demand compared with global supply shocks.
The Reserve Bank itself pointed to both factors.
In explaining Tuesday’s decision, the RBA said inflation remained elevated and that some of the upside risks it had identified in August were now materialising.
The central bank said the widening Middle East conflict had pushed global energy prices much higher than previously forecast, while disruptions to global oil supplies were feeding into Australian fuel costs and the prices of other goods and services.
But the Board also pointed to pressure within the Australian economy.
It said businesses continued to report rising costs, with some companies increasing prices or preparing to do so, while domestic capacity pressures remained a source of inflation.
“Recent data suggest that growth and inflation in Australia have been higher than expected,” the Board said.
The RBA also highlighted weak productivity growth as a constraint on Australia’s potential economic growth and warned that inflation remained too high.
Significantly for mortgage holders, the central bank did not rule out another rate increase.
“The Board will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target, including increasing the cash rate target further if needed,” it said.
That warning leaves Australians facing the prospect that the current tightening cycle may not yet be finished.
The latest published inflation figures before Wednesday’s scheduled August CPI release showed consumer prices rising 3.5 per cent over the year to July.
Housing costs increased 5 per cent over the year, while food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 3.2 per cent. The ABS’s trimmed-mean measure of underlying inflation was 3.6 per cent — still above the RBA’s 2–3 per cent target band.
Those numbers sit behind a growing political argument about who should bear responsibility for Australia’s economic conditions.
Hanson’s demand that Chalmers resign represents one of the strongest personal attacks yet on the Treasurer over the latest round of interest-rate increases.
Chalmers, however, has rejected suggestions that the government’s policies are primarily responsible for the latest inflation pressures.
Following the RBA decision, the Treasurer said the war in the Middle East was pushing up inflation and interest rates around the world.
“Australian workers didn’t choose this war, but they are paying a hefty price for it,” Chalmers said.
He acknowledged the rate increase would make life more difficult for households but argued that international energy shocks had become a major inflationary force.
Chalmers also pointed directly to the RBA statement, which identified the Middle East conflict, higher energy prices and rising technology-related costs associated with the global AI investment boom as inflation risks.
“Inflation is much lower than its peak, but it is higher than we would like and the conflict in the Middle East is making inflation linger for longer,” Chalmers said.
The Treasurer defended the government’s economic record, arguing Labor had improved the federal budget position while providing cost-of-living assistance through cheaper medicines, greater bulk billing, wage increases and tax cuts.
He said the 2025–26 budget outcome was $6 billion better than forecast in May and that the deficit was almost half the level inherited when Labor entered office.
“Responsible economic management is a defining feature of this Government,” Chalmers said.
That explanation is unlikely to settle the political argument.
For Hanson, the question is not simply whether external factors have contributed to inflation but whether the government has done enough domestically to reduce pressure on the Reserve Bank.
One Nation has increasingly attacked government expenditure, taxation and housing affordability while promoting policies aimed at putting more money immediately into household budgets.
The party has recently proposed allowing eligible renters and mortgage holders to temporarily receive part of their compulsory superannuation contributions as take-home pay, arguing Australians should have greater control over their money during periods of financial pressure.
Chalmers has criticised that proposal, arguing it risks weakening retirement savings.
The latest rate rise gives Hanson another avenue to challenge the Treasurer at a time when One Nation has been recording substantially stronger polling than at the 2025 federal election.
But responsibility for interest rates is more complicated than the political attacks suggest.
The RBA sets monetary policy independently of the government. Its September statement identified international oil disruptions, global technology prices, domestic capacity constraints and weak productivity as contributors to the inflation outlook.
The Bank also acknowledged that its own rate rises were beginning to slow the economy.
Consumer spending growth was easing, housing prices had fallen in most capital cities, new housing lending had declined, and labour-market conditions had softened.
Yet the Board concluded those signs were not enough to offset the renewed inflation risk.
That leaves households caught between two pressures.
The RBA says it needs to keep demand subdued to prevent high inflation becoming embedded.
But the mechanism it uses to achieve that — higher interest rates — directly increases financial pressure on mortgage holders and reduces the amount households have available to spend elsewhere.
For someone with a large variable mortgage, four rate increases in one year can translate into hundreds of dollars in additional repayments each month once lenders pass them through.
The cash rate has increased by one full percentage point during 2026, from 3.60 per cent at the beginning of the year to 4.60 per cent now.
And the political consequences are becoming increasingly visible.
Hanson is seeking to turn mortgage stress and cost-of-living frustration into a question of ministerial accountability.
Chalmers is arguing that Australians are being hit by a combination of global shocks that the government cannot control and domestic challenges it is working to address.
The Reserve Bank, meanwhile, is warning that inflation remains sufficiently serious to justify keeping further rate increases on the table.
For Australian households, the political argument over who is responsible will continue.
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