"For much of the decade or so before the financial crisis it was...

"For much of the decade or so before the financial crisis it was normal for headline mortgage rates to move in near lock step with the cash rate. This has obviously changed over recent years, as bank funding costs – and hence mortgage rates – have risen relative to the cash rate. As we have noted many times, the Board of the RBA has taken account of this in its monthly policy decisions. As a result, the cash rate today is around 1½ percentage points lower than it otherwise would have been. The fact that the Bank has offset the effect of higher funding costs on lending rates means that the normal level of the cash rate is lower than it otherwise would have been. A 3 per cent cash rate today is not the same as a 3 per cent cash rate in the past."

http://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2012/sp-dg-051212.html