The fall in house-building, because it brought forward our own slowdown, reinforced the message from the world. (ii)  Because inflation was not threatening to rise above our target, we had no conflict of objectives, and so could act quickly.
I am often asked why Australia was able to come through the GFC relatively unscathed. Unlike the US, the UK and the euro area, Australia didn’t have a recession and we didn’t have any bank failures. My usual response is that it was a mixture of good luck and good management.