RBA rhetoric
Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser has had a tough ride with the media. But while he impressed today, the reaction to the central bank's minutes show it still faces comms challenges.
When former Bank of England official Andrew Hauser agreed to join the Reserve Bank of Australia as its deputy governor, he probably didn’t expect such a hostile reception from sections of the country’s media and political establishment.
Back in August, following one of his first public appearances in the role, Hauser was labelled “arrogant”, a “wanker” and a “tosser” for daring to criticise certain public commentators for the certainty of their predictions on the Australian economy.
Central bankers are used to having their every word scrutinised by financial markets, but the reaction to that speech highlighted the more populist communications challenges the RBA faces in Australia — a country with some of the highest household debt levels in the world, where house prices are a constant talking point, and where the cost-of-living crisis has arguably dominated politics this year.
Hauser struck a confident and erudite tone at a lunch in Sydney on Tuesday, hosted by the Walkley Foundation, to discuss communications challenges for central banks in the 21st century. He fielded tough questions from star ABC investigative journalist Adele Ferguson on the recent controversy surrounding the RBA’s private briefings with financial institutions (which he described as necessary engagement for the central bank) and whether oligopolies in the Australian economy have contributed to sticky inflation.
