Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I'd like to begin by commending the chair on his fine efforts in leading this most important of committees. It has never been a more important time for this committee to do its work of holding the RBA to account; in fact, I think it was back in 2007 when the House economics committee last oversaw such a rapid change in monetary policy. I'd like to thank committee members for the collegiate way they have addressed things, and, most importantly, thank the secretariat for helping us through things; we're a rather young committee with such an important role. I thank them for their fine work.

I will make one personal comment. The chair and I have made extensive efforts to have an open conversation about the importance of keeping the focus on the RBA's work here. There has never been a more important time for us to do that, and I'm very grateful that he has engaged in the way that he has. Thank you, Member for Fraser.

I will note very quickly that, in reading the report, the report feels very dated given it's only three months old. That's because so much change has happened in the economy during that time. It's very interesting to read the governor's comments at the time, saying that the outlook was uncertain but positive. That is very reflective, but I'm not sure we'd make the same statement now. That shows how much change was happening during the decision-making of the RBA at that time. We must remember household spending was still very strong but, very interestingly, consumer confidence was quite weak. It was a unique situation. Anecdotally, many of us will have looked back over the summer period and seen that high spending continuing on as savings that had been accumulated during the pandemic dwindled. I am reflecting there that there is not an end to the change we're going through; we'll probably see this focus continue, no doubt, in the next meeting with the governor of the RBA.

One of the points I will take up—and the chair has done an excellent job of summarising the report—is that we went into a prolonged discussion, and have since carried that on, around the forward guidance provided by the RBA governor that has become the subject of significant media scrutiny since. It's important that we delved into that and it's important that we hold the RBA to account on future statements they make, particularly because these are statements that impact households, aspirational Australians, mums and dads and young people right across the economy; they make decisions based upon these statements. It's crucial we make clear to the RBA who is impacted by these statements. Going forward, that's something that will be a continued theme of our investigations.

I follow up with this last point that was very well raised, around the convergence of fiscal and monetary policy. The governor made a statement about those two working very well together during the pandemic period in terms of achieving a set outcome. It's important for us to continue a focus on that, particularly in keeping an eye on potential future fiscal expansion and what that would mean. As the chair pointed out, the governor was comfortable with where things are. I'd like him to remain comfortable; that's the best way possible for us to alleviate those inflationary pressures on households we're observing.

To go back to the start, I thank the chair and the committee very much for their hard work, and I thank the secretariat.

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