Talk:Reserve Bank of Australia

Official Cash Rate

There seems to be bugger all about that, which is probably why most people come to this page.

Also, the actual wiki page for the Official Cash Rate is crap too.

Basically, somebody (not me, ha!) needs to tidy this abomination up, and make it something vaguely useful.

Untitled

see photos on the RBA web site http://www.rba.gov.au/AboutTheRBA/rba_board.html#members

Criticism Section

We need a criticism section (similar to the page on the American Federal Reserve Bank). In light of recent books such as The Evil Princes of Martin Place: The Reserve Bank of Australia, the Global Financial Crisis and the Threat to Australians' Liberty and Prosperity, which criticise the RBA and its role in causing the financial crisis. See also opinion articles at La.org.au which criticize central banking. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mookrit (talk • contribs) 13:38, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

As a note, I recommend criticisms of general central banking practices to be confined to the relevant wikipedia entries (e.g. Central bank). Furthermost (talk) 23:41, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Independent?

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How independent is the Reserve Bank from the government of the day? --219.89.236.186 00:19, 3 August 2006 (UTC) Completely I believe. Technically, the government could revoke the ACT which formed the RBA etc, but such a move would be absolute political suicide and would never be done. Or not in the present climate anyway. The RBA makes its own decisions independently of the governmentGreenGopher 06:27, 10 November 2006 (UTC) While it makes decisions indepedantly it must still report to the goverment. if the RBA fails to acheieve is goals (of maintainly stability and working for the good of the people) it WILL be revoked by the upper house. Technically it can't really fails because its 3 main objectives were poorly throught out. The first one directly effects the 2nd and 3rd, and the RBA has never attempted to forfill the first objective (stability of the currency), they are happy to let it increase exponentially.--Dacium 22:28, 26 February 2007 (UTC) Although the RBA is nearly completely independent of the government, we must remember that Peter Costello is still a member of the board. Political bias should be minimal but regardless his actions are no doubt motivated by his political position as treasurer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.219.51.235 (talk) 09:04, 7 November 2007 (UTC) You are sorely mistaken. Peter Costello was never a member of the board. No treasurer receives an RBA board seat. Furthermost (talk) 23:33, 31 October 2011 (UTC) This is not a surprise to me. After watching this documentary http://www.freedomtofascism.com/index.html everything is falling in place. It is quite hard to beleve but the facts are right there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.214.82.197 (talk) 13:47, 12 July 2007 (UTC) I just read this quote, which made me very curious about the RBA: "This much anticipated decision is also the first time the RBA has moved rates upwards in an election year since the Howard Government granted it independence at the outset of its first term in office. It will also probably be the most analysed economic policy decision for a very long time. " [Not All McMansions and Happy Meals] What act did that gov't pass? How did it change the RBA? 99.245.173.200 14:06, 29 August 2007 (UTC) Basically, the reserve bank, as stated in the article, used to simply be a tool of the government. While it was the RBA who set the cash rate, this decision was made with advice (ie orders) from the government, ensuring it remained a political tool. In 1996, Costello formalised the RBA's independence, which meant that the RBA now makes its own decisions seperate of that to the government, which is prohibited from interfering. I don't know the exact Act, I can research it if people think it's important. The main reason these reforms were made were because governments prior would not raise interest rates unless it was absolutely necessary, as it was politically unpopular - obvious reasons as to why. Problem is, this would ensure governments waited until after elections, by which point inflation was already a massive problem, and the economy would be shot. Hence rates would have to climb to 15% to fix the problem, creating a lot of short term pain - cue Keatings 'recession we had to have.' The RBA is now supposed to act regardless of the politics, so rates are raised as necessary, not in one big lump after the election. The last rate rise was seen as so important because it was the first time the bank had raised rates in an election year, potentially damaging the government. It is seen as a sign it is finally embracing its independence /ramblings GreenGopher 12:02, 30 August 2007 (UTC) The RBA is bound by the Reserve Bank Act 1959, and while the bank has certain freedoms to direct monitary policy, it must report to the treasurer and in matters of disagreement the Governor-General (not to be confused with the Governor of the RBA Board) can intervene and if need be force the bank to implement changes to its policy, so the RBA isn't a law unto itself (perhaps more akin to a stubborn teenager who will direct all efforts towards trying to get away with whatever it can and never admit to being wrong). It is important to distinguish the RBA from the US Federal Reserve, because as I understand while the Fed Act Section 31 reseves the right to amend or revoke the Act by Congress, there doesn't appear to be anything about accountability beyond reporting to Congress (Congress doesn't appear to be able to overrule policy without amending the Act, wheras in Australia there is a legislated procedure for disagreements). sources: http://www.rba.gov.au/about-rba/accountability.html#consultation_with_government http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/section31.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.129.23.146 (talk) 11:53, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Merge from Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia

I suggest that the article Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia into the Governors section of this article. The other article merely duplicates the information already in the main article. Kelvin 09:15, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Done Althepal 06:21, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Reserve Bank of Australia/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Commencing review

I will be undertaking this review. The article appears to be stable and neutral. All images appear to be in order. User:Hello32020 has done a lot of work to improve the article from its previously very basic form. The article has significant issues in three areas:

• Style and clarity of writing
• Excessive reliance on narrow sources, with the main sources being pages from the Reserve Bank's own web site
• Paraphrasing of those webpages that appears to me to be too close to the original to be appropriate, as well as not summarising important information in sufficiently concise a way (ie. too much information on minor matters, resulting from following the original pages too closely). There is always theissue that "in many cases close paraphrasing of a non-free copyrighted source is likely to be an infringement of the copyright of the source", and the RBA's material is non-free. The preceding quote is from the WP essay Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing, which editors may find valuable to assist in dealing with this issue.

• This problem is perhaps most evident in the article section "Payments System Board and the ACCC"

There are academic sources that discuss aspects of the Reserve Bank's operations, such as the following books:

• Joan Linklater, Inside the bank: the role of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the economic, banking and financial systems (1992)
• CB Schedvin, In reserve: central banking in Australia, 1945-75 (1992)
• Stephen Bell (ed), Economic governance & institutional dynamics (2002)
• Stephen Bell, Australia's money mandarins: the Reserve Bank and the politics of money (2004)

There have also been a range of inquiries relating to RB operations, and these also could be used as sources (and indeed discussed in the history section, which they mostly are not at present - I am referring to inquiries since the 1960s). The RBA's actions are regularly commented upon in reliable media sources. Several former governors have also published collected speeches. Obviously not all of these sources need to be uutilised for GA-level, but some do, and I would particularly suggest that Bell's 2004 book be consulted, as the most recent book-length study of the RBA.

Other points

• Early history paragraphs lack citations completely.
• No real discussion of significant debates that have taken place arround the RBAs inflation targets and its policy actions to pursue them. My recollection is that both in the recession circa 1991, and again (to a lesser degree) recently, there have been some questions asked about the RBA's attentiveness to policy settings.

Conclusion

I may be able to do some copyediting of particular points, but the article needs too much work to be considered for GA at present. If the preceding issues were to be addressed and the article re-nominated, I would be willing for an editor to contact me and ask me to look at it again, which may shorten the wait-time in the GAN queue. Thanks once again to User:Hello32020 for your improvements. Cheers. hamiltonstone (talk) 01:55, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

2013 cash injection questions

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Two days ago we were surprised that the RBA is gettiing 8.8 billion $ in cash from the Federal Government, which is more than 4 times as much as the quoted 1.91 that that they previously held. This is to cover for risk exposure from Europe and the US, they said. Naturally, one starts asking, what risk exposure does Australia have to dicey assetts? Did we not have 5 years since the crisis started to get rid of dicey assetts? Which assetts exactly does the RBA normally have - and why do they have assetts which expose them/all of us to risk? Why are these assetts a secret, when all of Australia has to borrow 8.8 billion $ to cover the Reserve Bank? We have been told for years that going into debt is wrong - but now we have no trouble getting into debt, and pay interest for years for assetts that they must have known for 5 years are dicey. When someone ends up footing the bill (like all of us) it is usually good manners to inform those affected what happens and why. 144.136.192.18 (talk) 02:13, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

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For the laypeople

There needs to be a section that provides details that a layperson can understand about the function of the Reserve Bank. For example - it should be conveyed to the layperson whether or not the Reserve Bank is like a regular bank that serves the general public, such as Westpac Bank, Commonwealth Bank etc. KorgBoy (talk) 22:50, 11 March 2020 (UTC)