They really do play by a different set of rules.

One set for them, one set for you. And your rules are much tougher.

That’s the lesson we’ve learnt today when The Daily Telegraph revealed RBA Governor Michele Bullock got a sweetheart deal on her first mortgage which cut her mortgage interest rate in half and allowed her to pay off her first home in less than a decade.

As the Telegraph reported:

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock paid off her house in Sydney’s inner west in under a decade – courtesy of a special half-price mortgage deal for RBA employees.

The revelation that Ms Bullock was able to save a fortune on interest through the generous scheme has emerged as she and the rest of the central bank board meet to consider whether to impose a 14th rate rise in 19 months.

And that set her up to then oversee a property portfolio of three more investment properties.

Now, don’t get us wrong, we have no problem with people building wealth and owning their home. We want to see Australians prosper. But the rules should be the same for ordinary Australians and the elites like Bullock.

And the fact is: they’re not.

Bullock sits in a Sydney CBD office, a career public servant, making decisions that will affect millions of Australians, all while she’s never had to face the same challenges you do, because she got this special deal.

To make things worse, on Tuesday she will decide if you get another last interest rate rise for the year.

So to learn that Bullock, with her million dollar salary also got a special RBA-only benefit to pay off her home, has to hit hard for those Australian families waiting on a knife’s edge to find out if they have to cop another rate rise.

Only weeks after she told a Hong Kong economics conference Australian home owners were “doing fine” and complaints about rate rises were “a lot of noise”, we find out she doesn’t even know what Australians actually have to deal with on a daily basis.

It really is Us vs Them.