Review of the Reserve Bank

Today I announce the first wide‑ranging review of the Reserve Bank of Australia since the current monetary policy arrangements were instituted in the 1990s.

This delivers on our commitment to conduct a broad‑based review of the setting of monetary policy in Australia.

The Reserve Bank is a crucial economic institution which has served Australia well for more than six decades.

This is all about ensuring we have the world's best and most effective central bank into the future.

Australia is facing a complex and rapidly changing economic environment, as well as a range of long‑term economic challenges.

This is an important opportunity to ensure that our monetary policy framework is the best it can be, to make the right calls in the interests of the Australian people and their economy.

The Review will consider the RBA's objectives, mandate, the interaction between monetary, fiscal and macro-prudential policy, its governance, culture, operations, and more.

The Terms of Reference for the Review are attached and available online.

A panel of three experts from Australia and overseas, independent of the RBA and outside of the Treasury Department, will lead the Review:

  • Carolyn Wilkins, an external member of the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England and former Senior Deputy Governor to the Bank of Canada;
  • Professor Renée Fry‑McKibbin, one of Australia’s leading macroeconomists and Interim Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University; and
  • Dr Gordon de Brouwer PSM, an eminent Australian economist and Secretary for Public Sector Reform with 35 years' experience in public policy and administration in Australia including at Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The Panel will be supported by a secretariat with Treasury and other staff.

The Review will produce a final report with recommendations to Government by March 2023.

It will consult with domestic and global experts, former members of the Board, and members of the public and will seek submissions to ensure a wide range of opinions are considered.

It will draw on some of the world's best and brightest experts to ensure the RBA has the right objectives, policies, governance and culture for the future.

For the terms of reference or for more information, visit the Review of the Reserve Bank of Australia website.

Terms of reference

RBA Review ‑ Terms of Reference

The Review of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is designed to ensure that Australia's monetary policy arrangements and the operations of the Bank continue to support strong macroeconomic outcomes for Australia in a complex and continuously evolving landscape.

  1. The Review will assess Australia’s monetary policy arrangements:

    1.1. The RBA’s objectives, as outlined in the Reserve Bank Act (1959) and in the Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy, including the continued appropriateness of the inflation targeting framework.

    1.2. The interaction of monetary policy with fiscal and macro-prudential policy, including during crises and when monetary policy space is limited.

    1.2.1. This will include Australia's macro-prudential governance arrangements, but exclude APRAs statutory role or functions.

  2. It will also assess the following aspects of the RBA:

    2.1. Its performance in meeting its objectives, including its choice of policy tools, policy implementation, policy communication, and how trade‑offs between different objectives have been managed.

    2.2. Its governance (including Board structure, experiences and expertise, composition and the appointments process) and accountability arrangements.

    2.3. Its culture, management and recruitment processes.

  3. The Review will exclude the RBA's payments, financial infrastructure, banking, and banknotes functions.
  4. The Review will consult extensively with domestic and global experts and members of the public.
  5. The Review will take account of analysis conducted in prior reviews of other central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the European Central Bank.
  6. The Review may invite and publish submissions and seek information from any persons or bodies.
  7. A final report, with a set of clear recommendations to Government, is to be provided to the Treasurer no later than March 2023.

Biographies - independent panel biographies

Carolyn Wilkins

  • External member to the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England
  • Senior research scholar at the Griswold Center for Economic Policy, Princeton University

Biography

Carolyn is a renowned international expert on monetary policy. She has joined Princeton University’s Griswold Center for Economic Policy as a senior research scholar in January 2022 for a two‑year term. She also sits on the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee as an external member and on Intact Financial Corporation’s Board of Directors. She is an Advisor to RiskThinking.AI and a Mentor for the blockchain stream at the Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab.

Prior to these appointments, Carolyn had a distinguished twenty‑year career at the Bank of Canada, serving as Senior Deputy Governor from 2014 to 2020, setting monetary and financial system policies with Governing Council, and overseeing strategic planning and economic research. She has made important contributions to international financial policies over her career, including as the Bank of Canada’s G20 and G7 Deputy and member of the Financial Stability Board.

Carolyn holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Laurier University, an MA in Economics from Western University, and an Honours BA in Economics from Laurier University. She was named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award by the Women’s Executive Network in 2016 and 2018.

Professor Renée Fry‑McKibbin

  • Interim Director, Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University
  • Co‑director, Finance and the Macroeconomy research program, and Commodities and the Macroeconomy research program, within the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA).
  • Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Biography

Professor Renée Fry‑McKibbin is a leading Australian academic on macroeconometrics and the Interim Director of Crawford School of Public Policy in the College of Asia and the Pacific. She is also the co‑director of the Finance and the Macroeconomy research program and the Commodities and the Macroeconomy research program within the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA). Renée also holds positions as a research associate in the H.O Stekler Research Project on Forecasting at George Washington University, and the Centre for Applied Macro‑ and Petroleum Analysis at the B.I. Norwegian Business School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia where she is Chair of the disciplines in Panel B: Business and Economics. She is a board member of the Australasian Macroeconomics Society, Editor of the Economic Record, and an Associate Editor for Finance Research Letters.

Renée publishes in the area of financial market and macroeconometrics, mainly focusing on developing frameworks to model the transmission of international economic and financial market shocks to small open economies, such as those sourced in commodity markets, global business cycles and financial market crises. Her principal publications appear in the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Banking and Finance, and Quantitative Finance.

Dr Gordon de Brouwer PSM

  • Secretary for Public Sector Reform

Biography

Gordon de Brouwer is Secretary for Public Sector Reform, a two‑year position appointed by the Prime Minister to lead and implement public sector reform, working closely with the Public Service Commissioner and reporting to the Minister for the Public Service. Before starting his appointment on 1 July 2022, Gordon was Professor of Economics, jointly appointed to the Crawford School of Public Policy and College of Business and Economics. He is committed to public value, high‑quality policy and implementation, and effective government.

Gordon has about 35 years' experience in public policy and administration in Australia, including as Secretary of the Department of the Environment and Energy (2013‑17) and senior roles in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (including Associate Secretary of Domestic Policy Group and G20 Sherpa, 2008‑13), Treasury (2002‑08), ANU (Professor of Economics, 2000‑02) and the Reserve Bank of Australia (1991‑99).

Before returning to the public service, Gordon was a Director of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) (including Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee) and the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA). He was a member of the Advisory Board of the Nature Conservancy Australia and the Reef Resilience and Adaptation Program. He was National President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, Chair of the Australian National Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (AusPECC), a facilitator in Jeff Whalan Learning Groups for senior public servants in Australia and New Zealand, and a senior advisor in the Economics Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. D.C.

Gordon has a PhD in economics from the Australian National University. He was awarded a Public Service Medal and made a Knight in France's Legion of Honour for his work on G20 and public service.