Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion of the member for Melbourne, which calls for this House to establish an independent inquiry into the 'bank note bribery scandal concerning the Reserve Bank of Australia, Securency and Note Printing Australia'. The motion suggests that such an inquiry should have powers equivalent to a royal commission. This is a serious call indeed, and one that this House should think about carefully before endorsing. It is a matter of record that serious allegations have been made, but it is also worth noting, as previous speakers in this debate have done, that the Reserve Bank has conducted internal reviews which found no wrongdoing on the part of any RBA staff or RBA appointed board members of Securency. The matter is also under investigation by the Australian Federal Police, and it might therefore be thought appropriate for this House not to step into a space which is already occupied by a police investigation.

It is a great irony that one of the great Australian inventions that we often point to, the polymer bank note—which, alongside the black box, is often regarded as one of Australia's great innovations—should be caught up in an apparent scandal like this. It is important to recognise the statements the Reserve Bank of Australia have made concerning the scandal which, as previous members have noted, arose in 1999 to 2005. By coincidence, that is around the same period the AWB scandal was occurring that the member for Higgins referred to. The Reserve Bank of Australia noted in a statement on 1 July this year:

None of the individuals charged now has any connection with the companies or with the Reserve Bank.

No one in the Reserve Bank has been accused of wrongdoing, nor have any members of the company boards who were drawn from the Reserve Bank.

The Reserve Bank's statement also noted:

Over the past several years much has been done to tighten controls and strengthen governance so as to avoid any re-occurrence of the alleged behaviour:

The Reserve Bank statement ended by noting that it would not make further comments about the charges as they were now to be tested in the courts. Similarly, this House should wait and see the results of those police investigations before putting in place an investigation of our own.

It is absolutely critical that we recognise the context in which we are having this conversation. Amidst some global turmoil on US and European markets, Australia has extraordinarily strong economic fundamentals, one of the lowest unemployment rates in the developed world, one of the lowest levels of government debt in the developed world, and strict fiscal rules and strong banks. In the Asian century we are located in the fastest-growing region of the world, deeply enmeshed in the economies of Asia.

It is true, of course, that a high dollar puts pressure on certain sectors, Dutch disease puts pressure on manufacturing, domestic tourism and our higher education sector, which is reliant on overseas students. But it is important when we are discussing matters such as the Reserve Bank and the conduct of monetary policy in Australia not to forget the fundamental economic environment in which we find ourselves. Ours is a position that almost any developed country in the world would be glad to trade places with. Both the Treasurer and the Reserve Bank governor note that when they attend international meetings virtually any colleague around the world would be happy to trade places with them. So it is in that strong economic context that this conversation is occurring.

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