Australia politics live updates: Frydenberg defends government record on economy amid rate rise; teachers in NSW to strike

There’s apparently 24 useful hours in every day. And on day 24 of the election campaign that won’t end, Australia will use them to talk about interest rates.

John Howard, who not only lost the election, but his seat in parliament in 2007 – the last time an interest rate rise was announced during an election campaign – says there is no problem for the government.

Scott Morrison won’t stop talking about the economic “shields” he says his government provided during the pandemic and choices about who should handle the economy.

Anthony Albanese is all about the “triple whammy” and trying to get at least some of the blame to stick with the Morrison government.

Meanwhile, people already on the bubble of economic stress are facing watching rates rise to 2.5 %. And while that’s not the 17% rates those in the 1990s experienced, people didn’t tend to have million-dollar mortgages then either, or have spent more than six times their earnings on their house.

Wages have not increased in a real sense for close to a decade. That’s a problem in itself but it’s an even bigger problem when the cost of living inflates and suddenly your dollar doesn’t go as far. For those on income support, it’s even more dire. Rentals are already beyond reach. If you don’t think landlords won’t pass along any interest rate rises, then I’ve got a bridge I’d like to chat to you about taking off my hands. That’s on top of power prices increasing, basic, non-discretionary items increasing and transport costs increasing. So it’s not about what to eat, it’s about if you eat. If you go at all. If you use the power. Those have already been hard choices for people on low incomes. Now they are becoming impossible ones.

In NSW, teachers will go on strike after the government didn’t come to the table with a pay rise to address shortages. Premier Dominic Perrottet asked teachers to wait until the budget is delivered next month to negotiate – unions said teachers had waited long enough, with the latest round of negotiations having been sought since February. Last year.

So strap in for what’s going to be a pretty political day debating what is a very scary and real issue for many of us.

Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst, Josh Butler and Paul Karp are keeping watch and you have Amy Remeikis here on the blog.

I’m not ready either. We’ll get through it together.