1. 2023
  2. In focus: Australian interest rates over the last four and a half decades

We're Going to Lose the House!

Alan Moir
The Sydney Morning Herald

Published in 1988.

When our share market followed Wall Street’s collapse in October 1987, many feared it meant another Great Depression. It didn’t. The boom just moved to the property market, eventually necessitating big rises in interest rates to bring it under control. It could have been the end for Bob Hawke and Paul Keating at the 1990 election, but Labor stayed in control of the Lower House for another six years.

A crowd shouts to Prime Minister Bob Hawke, 'We're going to lose the house!', which he then says to treasurer Paul Keating.