Mike's Minute: We need more transparency around the Reserve Bank

We should all thank Kelly Eckhold, a some-time participant on this show and most-of-the-time economist at Westpac, for his thinking around the future of the Reserve Bank. 

As I have said many times, if one good thing came out of Covid, it put the Reserve Bank, its role, and its influence front and centre for many more of us that may never really have paid attention to its workings and its ability to shape everyday aspects of our lives. 

Eckhold suggests the new governor put the inflation target a little higher than 1-3%. Historically we sit at about 2.5%, so chasing less than that can have a lot of effects you may, or may not, want. 

Do remember some inflation is good. You want inflation, you just don’t want the amount we have had, and you want it produced from growth, not just cost-plus-accounting from councils and power companies. 

More importantly for me is the public accountability. The Quigley/Orr debacle shows you what can go on when public disclosure is not as fulsome as it could be. 

Eckhold wants the Monetary Committee vote made public. Good idea, so it should be. 

It's not often there is a divergence, but there has been lately. In fact, the last statement involved a 4-2 vote, which has never happened before. 

So why don’t we know who they were and what they said? 

The rules as they stand mean a person on the committee can out themselves. But you will notice from last time that no one has. Why not? 

Next idea: a press conference should be held after each meeting, not just the ones that produce a cash rate call. 

I know I'm a wonk, but I cannot press enough the value of watching these things live. Not just the Reserve Bank, but opticians who these days, thanks to digital coverage of places like the Herald, run them in full routinely. 

The irony of that is you would be amazed what you learn, as opposed to what you may or may not learn from a news bulletin edited and often curtailed to a point of nonsense later in the day in a news bulletin. 

The best example is the Prime Minister's press conference on a Monday after Cabinet. 

So, more pressers, more transparency, which is more detail, more sunlight, more inquisition and more knowledge. 

What possibly could the Reserve Bank argue is wrong with that? 

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