Treasurer Jim Chalmers has opened the door for possible alterations to how the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will be reformed to ensure smooth passage through Parliament.
The proposed bill seeks to create two RBA boards instead of one: a board to make interest rate decisions, and the other to take care of corporate governance.
Those on the interest rate board will have an expanded role, including regular speech to discuss decisions.
They will also have fresh selection criteria, prioritising a range of expertise, which a previous review said was lacking under current arrangements.
The government, however, was open to limiting Parliament’s ability to override the RBA in emergencies, ensure current RBA board members are offered positions on the newly created Monetary Policy Board, and maintain continuity across both the Monetary and Governance Boards.
The opposition had raised concerns the government could “stack” the two newly created RBA boards with favoured appointees.
“The transition of the existing RBA board … has been consistently raised with the treasurer and his office since the first meeting,” Taylor said.
“The treasurer should not be given the option of stacking the board with his mates.”
Defending his proposal, Chalmers said that he had held three face-to-face meetings with Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor to discuss the changes.
“We’ve also exchanged a bunch of letters, and that’s all about making sure that the central bank of this country is above and beyond partisan politics,” he said.
“My goal here is to try and legislate these changes before the end of the year so they can start at the beginning of next year. It’s dragged on too long, frankly, and we want to get cracking.”
Chalmers said the current governor of the Reserve Bank was in support of the proposed changes.
