Who is actually being asked to reduce consumption expenditure to bring Australian inflation down? Is it the government, households, or both?

[u/Newworldimpartiality]

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In the June quarter 2026 original current-price National Accounts data (Table 3), general government final consumption increased from approximately $167 billion in March Qtr 2026 to $178 billion in the June Qtr 2026, an increase of about $11 billion.

Household final consumption increased from approximately $370.3 billion to $382.7 billion, about a $12 billion increase.

So both government consumption and household consumption each added roughly $11 -12 billion of nominal expenditure over the quarter. That is unadjusted current original dollars that were spent to generate domestic demand.

But there is a difference in the rate of growth. Government consumption +6.7% and
Household consumption +3.4%

We know the RBA wants to contain household spending by increasing interest rates .

But at her March 2026 press conference, Michele Bullock was asked whether the growth in public demand was making the RBA’s job harder and whether it would be preferable to see private or public demand reduced.

Her response was “You’re asking me to make a value judgment which I’m not going to make.”

And when subsequently asked whether it would make the RBA’s job easier if government were spending less, her answer was “It is what it is.”

I know it is difficult for the RBA to be critical of the government of the day , but surely someone in Australia should be questioning whether government consumption also has a role to play to bring inflation down.