Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to resume the speech on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Reserve Bank Reforms) Bill 2023 that I began in the other chamber, where I had laid out our strong commitment to an independent, credible, capable Reserve Bank. It's very clear that those opposite don't share that commitment. I also said that we consider completely unacceptable a strategy from those opposite to sack and stack the Reserve Bank board to serve their own purposes. It has become very clear and very apparent not only that they are not committed to an independent, credible, capable Reserve Bank but that they are committed to sacking and stacking the current board.

This is a treasurer who learned his trade from Wayne Swan, the President of the Labor Party, and from Paul Keating, whose view of the Reserve Bank was that they do as they're told. Of course, what happens with Labor treasurers is that they lose control over the economy, they lose control over inflation, and growth stops. It shudders to a halt. And they want to be able to control the Reserve Bank for their political purposes in the lead up to an election! When it wrecks the economy, when they've got their foot on the accelerator, for instance, when the Reserve Bank has their foot on the brake, the engine stalls, but they don't care. They don't care as long as they can serve their own political purposes. Let me tell you that this Treasurer and this Prime Minister are only about the politics. They couldn't care less what implications it has for the engine when their foot is on the accelerator as the Reserve Bank's foot is on the brake.

We saw that in the extraordinary comments that were made over the last week. The person who led out was the Treasurer. He led out before he set the rest of his dogs—his surrogates—out. He started by blaming the RBA for all of his woes. They're his woes. It's his economic disaster that's hurting Australian households and has seen their standard of living collapse since he became the Treasurer, but he went and said, 'I'm going to shift the blame to the Reserve Bank. I'm going to find an excuse. It's the Reserve Bank smashing the economy. It's all them.'

He was backed in by the Prime Minister. He was backed in by the other members of the government's frontbench. I'm sure the member opposite agrees with him. He was backed in by those Labor aligned commentators, like Stephen Conroy and Stephen Koukoulas. They all backed him in. He was then backed in on Friday by the ALP president, his mentor, Wayne Swan, who said that he was very disappointed in the Reserve Bank and that—wait for it—it was punching itself in the face. Those are extraordinary comments from a former treasurer. It shows a complete disrespect and disregard for an institution that has served this country well. It is not perfect, but it has served this country well. This is a country that over multiple decades has had stronger growth and lower inflation than almost any other country in the world. But this is their view, and it's because it's not serving their political purpose. At the end of the day, that's where they come out.

But it goes even deeper than those comments from the ALP president. Shocking quotes came out from an ABC report by Jacob Greber, where he revealed:

One senior Labor figure described them—

that is, the RBA—

to the ABC on Friday as "barbarians" and "weirdos" in the thrall of a "bizarre group-think". Bullock is a "nutter" …

These are the comments. I hope those opposite don't agree with these comments, but these are the comments from a senior Labor figure reported by a very credible economic commentator, Jacob Greber, and it truly is shocking. The idea that what you do in the week leading up to introducing legislation that they want bipartisan—

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