Money man David Koch hit the nail on the head last week when he said millions of bruised and battered households are “likely to be handed a bill they did not run up”.

The Reserve Bank monetary policy board starts its two-day meeting today, and it’s all-but certain that at 2pm local time tomorrow governor Michele Bullock will emerge to tell cash-strapped mums and dads across the country they’ll need to find a little extra to meet monthly mortgage repayments.

But from where, Ms Bullock?

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that after three rate increases already this year — along with soaring fuel prices, massive hikes in car, house and health insurance and rising council rates — our family budget is pretty much tapped out. We’ve done our bit.

Discretionary spending has been curtailed, and if we do need to spend we turn first to redeeming any points on credit or loyalty cards.

Ms Bullock is at pains to say each time the official cash rate is increased to fight inflation that rising costs hurt everyone.

What’s not acknowledged is that the pain the RBA applies isn’t proportional.

Everyone pays the same for fuel, groceries, insurance and everything else that now costs more. But every rate rise hits just a third of the population that is unlucky enough to have a mortgage. A third of the whole bears the brunt of extra repayments on their home loan in the hopes diverting money to the banks will keep inflation in check.

And it’s not like households have been flush with cash this year. So what’s the source of this growing inflation?

Kochie, as economic director at Compare the Market, in an open letter to Ms Bullock and co believes it’s time for a little honestly and he wants the board to “look closely at who generated that worryingly high level of growth”.

“It wasn’t households,” he said, adding a “meaningful slice” of inflation as it stands “it not being generated in a shopping centre. It is being set in a cabinet room”.

“Households complied. Governments didn’t seem to. Yet only one of those two gets the higher interest rate bill,” he wrote.

Consider these facts he lays out.

“Household spending crept up just 0.4 per cent and almost half of that was a 10.3 per cent jump in car purchases as families moved into electric and hybrid vehicles,” he wrote.

“Australians are spending money in order to spend less money on petrol. That is hardly exuberance. That is a family at a kitchen table with a calculator.

“The saving ratio rose to 6.5 per cent. Business investment went backwards. As the Australian Bureau of Statistics put it, growth ‘remained subdued in the June quarter as households continued to behave cautiously’.

“And it has only got tougher since. Unemployment rose to 4.5 per cent in July, the highest since the pandemic, with 15,800 jobs gone in a month. Business conditions have turned negative for the first time in six years. Consumer sentiment has dropped more than 5 per cent. That is not an economy running hot.

“So who did the growing?

“It was government, and not by a little. According to a Liberal press release, Commonwealth government spending has climbed to 26.8 per cent of GDP — the highest level outside the pandemic since 1986.

“State Government spending isn’t helping, either. The public sector has accounted for the vast majority of jobs growth, with Institute of Public Accountants analysis putting the net figure at 82.1 per cent between August 2022 and August 2024.

“In other words, some of the stickiest price pressure isn’t coming from shoppers splurging, it’s coming from prices governments set, subsidise, regulate or index.”

Kochie wants Ms Bullock to reveal how much government spending has contributed to inflation and where the cash rate would otherwise sit.

Do households about to be hit yet again deserve that answer? Absolutely. Will they get it? Don’t count on it.