Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and major banks must explain the reasons for independent interest rate rises by lenders without any movement from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), says Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson.
Dr Nelson says Australia's fifth biggest bank, St George - which on Friday independently lifted its standard variable home loan rate by 0.2 percentage points to 9.67 per cent - had been extremely profitable in recent years.
"We've had it (rises) from Westpac, NAB, we've had it from all of the banks, we've had unofficial rises," Dr Nelson told reporters in Sydney.
"They say they've been paying more for their money. We also notice that profits continue to rise and the banks need to make it very clear to Australians why they are increasing their prices.
"Mr Swan seems to be nowhere to be found when these rate rises occur and I notice that when Peter Costello was the treasurer of Australia, we didn't have these sort of rises outside of the reserve bank movements."