years, and will now be recognised in New Zealand law by
adding employment outcomes, alongside price stability
as a dual mandate
for the Reserve Bank. I call the Hon Judith Collins.
Thank you. It is a ledge to be able
to take a call on the Reserve Bank
of New Zealand (Monetary Policy)
Amendment Bill. As has been outlined
the National Party believes that
this bill is somewhat not needed,
given that the Reserve Bank has done
an outstanding job in securing and
working to its mandate to
actually keep inflation under
control and price stability. Many of us
are old enough to remember what happens
when inflation gets out of control, and
particularly can remember
back in the days
particularly can remember back in
when, in fact, pricing was out of control and the Reserve
Bank Act needed to be brought into play. We
needed to be brought into play. We are concerned at
needed to be brought into play. We
creep that we see for the Reserve Bank. So, we are going to need to
have some real convincing done for
us in the
us in the Finance and Expenditure select committee
select committee and our caucus before we can bring
ourselves to support this bill. Because now we
see the
support this bill. Because now we
Labour New Zealand First Green Government
Labour New Zealand First Green
now like to have employment or responsibility for employment moving
to the Reserve Bank. I heard
some words about wellbeing, so presume
ply wellbeing
words about wellbeing, so presume
will eventually at some stage creep into the mandate of the
Reserve Bank. I heard comments from
the previous speaker, Mr Twyford,
around the housing market will
now become more of the preserve of the
Reserve Bank. I think it is one of
the issues with this is that
just because the Reserve
Bank is competent is no need to give
it all the work of the Government,
and I think that that is one of the
reasons that the Reserve Bank has
been so successful in bringing
about a stable monetary policy
and environment is that it has had a
single focus. It has not been at all
alert to or taking any notice
of thewomens
alert to or taking any notice of
politicians or anything else. They have just done their job and done it
exceedingly well. So we,
on this side of the House,
are somewhat bemused at the problem that is
trying to be solved
by the Government. I
Government. I would have thought that if you have something that is
working so well and has done so
for
amount of credibility built up, not only in New Zealand but also
elsewhere in the world,
and is often viewed as one of the great examples
of a success, why this Government
would so want to fiddle with the
mandate and the obligations
of the
be some tension between Treasury and the Reserve Bank on various issues.
I see that there is
the Reserve Bank on various issues.
bill is to put a Treasury person on this committee, a
monetary policy committee, and that
Treasury person
voting power, but will be there. What
voting power, but will be there.
think, has to be that it seems very unclear. So we're going to
want to have some pretty clear answers as
to exactly what the role of a
Treasury official is in those meetings
of the monetary policy committee. We know
that often the better decisions are
made after
made after careful consideration by a group of people in a committee,
rather than a sole person making a
judgement call. That
is already the practice at the Reserve Bank. It
seems to me somewhat
superfluous to have this bill coming through at
this stage. So, again, we're going
to need some convincing as to why
legislation and legislative time is
being spent on remedying something
which is not broken. We are
creep within the mandate of the Reserve Bank and its
obligations. New Zealand already has one of
the lower unemployment rates in
the world at around
lower unemployment rates in the
good result that has been now in mace for some years. I would not
like to see that employment
certainly do not want to see a Government plan to blame a Reserve
Bank should that
unemployment rate go up, because it certainly
seems to me that that could be a
result should this bill be successful in
its way through the House. It is not
before we had the Reserve Bank Act was a lack of focus, and a certainly
political interference in
decisions where the monetary policy really
needed to be free of that. So,
having a Treasury official sitting
in a meeting, The Treasury
official then reports through to
the secretary or Treasury, who then
reports to the Minister for Finance
could well actually be seen
as possibly bringing in some
form of political influence or an attempt to
do so when it comes to
those monetary policy committee decisions.
So, these are all
very genuine questions that we have and we
will be, in do you agree,
no doubt looking at this very carefully on the
Finance and Expenditure Committee.
Expenditure Committee. So, from our point of view, some of the arguments
I've heard from Mr Twyford is that
essentially this has
been a policy of the Green Party, it's been
a policy of the New Zealand First
Party, and it's been a
policy of the New Zealand Labour Party H I have
not heard an argument yet as
to what is trying to be remedied. I have not
yet heard an argument as to why
it's happening, other than that
some political parties went
out on the hustings and said there
was a problem, and that they were going
to fix it.
problem, and that they were going to fix it. The problem is
there doesn't appear to have been a problem,
and that this could be a situation of
considerable butt covering, to you a
very technical term, when it comes
to making these promises. So, I
think this is most likely a
bill that the National Party is going
to find is superfluous. Worse than
that, most likely going to find that
unless we see better
evidence and answers to our questions on the
Finance and Expenditure Committee, most likely going to be a bill that
we see as actually a bit of the thin
edge
we see as actually a bit of the thin
very strange acceptance that somehow the Reserve Bank needs to have
responsibility for sustainable
employment. I'm not sure
that anybody quite
anybody quite understands what
you like to hope that people can remain employed, and perhaps
that's what it is. But, ultimately,
when we
very little to do with monetary policy, and has a tremendous amount
to do with skills and also
confidence in business, it seems
to me that this is a very
strange requirement to put upon the
Reserve Bank, given that the Reserve Bank
has no power whatsoever to
influence skills training of people who wished
to be employed. It has no ability
confidence, other than for the Reserve Bank to do an outstanding
job and keep inflation rates
at very reasonable levels so that people can
plan better for their
businesses and make decisions that they believe
are
interests of not only their business but their employees. We think that
the stage the bill is
at this stage the bill is not needed,
at this stage the bill is not
covering from Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First, and
seems to us to be not really worth much
time at all. Thank you.
to be not really worth much time at all. Thank you. Fletcher Tabuteau.
Thank you for this opportunity to
speak to the Reserve
Bank of New Zealand
speak to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Monetary Policy)
Amendment Bill 2018. I want to start by
saying this 340er