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

I will miss the member for Moreton. I will miss him deeply. Labor didn't miss him; they shot him down in his prime, sadly. He was just about to cut loose, too. He knows the personal regard I have for him. On this, as with many of his speeches, he offers so much work for us to engage in, and I am going to take him up on three points because there are three points I think we want to hear as these Labor talking points get repeated through the rest of this speech.

Firstly, there is the bizarre accusation that we are somehow fighting with the RBA. Let's call this out. This is what we call an accusation in the mirror. It's a tactic you use to attribute your motives to your opponent and hope no-one will notice. Scoundrels across the world use it in politics to try to get away from the fact that they've been caught out. You've been caught out. You're fighting with the RBA. Every single credible economist is saying this. Labor is fighting with the RBA at the moment. There is no-one in the world who is going to listen to that speech, no matter how many times the member for Moreton or any other Labor members speaks afterwards and tries to twist the world around. They have picked a fight with the RBA, the world has seen it and that is what we're going to call it.

Secondly, when we speak to this piece of legislation, one of the things I'm going to raise is the various attacks that have been made on the RBA. That speech was, again, laden with attacks: attacks on the shadow Treasurer, attacks on the Leader of the Opposition, attacks on the character of us opposite. This is all they've got. They've been caught out. They're using poor logic in their arguments and they're using personal attacks.

I think the third point is very relevant to this piece of legislation: pointing to the time of Paul Keating as the Treasurer. Credit where it's due: some of his reforms will be remembered for a long time in this country for the benefit they raised. But, when we're talking about the independence of the RBA, I'd like to take you to one of Paul Keating's more famous quotes, talking about his relationship with Bernie Fraser, where he said, 'I've got the RBA in my pocket.' That was Keating's view on the relationship between the government and the RBA. So, if we're going to praise that time, let's remember that that's exactly the view he took in terms of how the government and the RBA's relationship should look. I think it's relevant when we look at the objections that this side of the House are raising to this particular piece of legislation.

I thank the member Moreton for all the fodder he gives us, but it was on 28 February that I first raised my concerns about the government's intentions around stacking the RBA. I called it out back then. It was in the Sydney Morning Herald. I was concerned that the proposed legislation at that stage was going to give Labor the power to stack the board so that they could control decisions on interest rates and effectively reduce the independence of the RBA by stealth. That was my concern at the time. I raised my concerns publicly and I stand by them. To his eternal credit, the shadow Treasurer argued, no, we must give the government the opportunity to demonstrate that their intentions are pure and that, in what is an important piece of work that has been done—the review of the RBA—they will not use the findings of the report to reduce the independence of the RBA and will act with a good conscience, putting the needs of the people of Australia first and ensuring that the independence of the RBA is maintained. The shadow Treasurer held that view.

It's important. I think it speaks to the views of this side of the House. We have treasured the independence of the RBA. In fact, I've talked about the relationship between Keating and Fraser. It was under Peter Costello and his relationship with Ian Macfarlane that we established, firmly, the independence of the RBA and gave them clear guidelines on conduct to follow. Ever since that time, by setting the target band of inflation that the RBA was to work towards, we have had that independence. We can see that in commentary from former prime minister John Howard, where he talked about how, in his time, there were decisions made by the RBA that certainly caused him a lot of grief but he had to accept that there was an independent decision-making process and that the RBA were the right people to make those decisions. They were the independent body to make those decisions. Whether we like it or not, that's the process. So this side of the House has stood up, and we have runs on the board in terms of this. This is important to us.

As time has gone on in this debate, there has been a worrying trend of attacks on the RBA and specifically on the RBA governor, Michele Bullock. These have been coming from Labor, starting directly from the Treasurer himself claiming that the RBA was smashing the economy—a claim that no credible economist has substantiated. No-one else is willing to stand behind that. That is a claim that has absolutely no substance and that no-one credible believes, and yet our Treasurer made it, trying to convince Australians that the pain that they're suffering—the economic pain that is going from household to household—is the result of the RBA.

This was followed up from the very top of the Labor Party. Wayne Swan decided to jump in and claim that the RBA was punching itself in the face. He was backing that up, going a little bit further than the Treasurer. Shortly, after Mr Swan's comments, the Treasurer tried to disassociate himself from those comments but maintained that the RBA were the bad guys in the situation and were, indeed, smashing the economy. If that weren't a bad enough hit job, they have now come in to put in front of us this legislation that enables the government to sack and stack the RBA board as they see fit.

We had this incredible piece from the ABC on Friday, with one senior Labor figure describing the RBA as 'barbarians', as 'weirdos' and as being in the thrall of a 'bizarre groupthink', and, worst of all, saying that Governor Bullock is a 'nutter'. This is coming from a senior Labor figure, quoted in the ABC. This is a series of attacks that we have seen coming from the government in the lead-up to putting this legislation on the table. The Treasurer's position has been backed by the Prime Minister, by members of the government frontbench and by Labor aligned commentators. No-one from the government has acknowledged that these statements are indeed attacks that are without precedent, that do nothing to help the Australian people and that do nothing to maintain the independence of the RBA. There is no apology from the government for these baseless attacks. The government was then challenged: 'So if you think the RBA should change its attitude then simply change the target band. Go on: change the target band. If you want to see interest rates reduced, change the target band, which would allow the RBA to make a different decision.' When they were challenged with that, of course, they ran away from that: 'Oh, no, we wouldn't want to actually do anything. These are just attacks. These are simply attacks we're going to throw out.'

When we see these sorts of attacks come through, it absolutely makes us question the motives of the government in bringing forward this legislation. Why else would you try and drag the RBA through the mud in the way that they have tried to do here, in the lead-up to the introduction of legislation that would enable them to sack and stack the board in a way that suits the government of the day? It's incredible; it's absolutely incredible. Why are we here? Why are we seeing this? Why does the government feel the need to increase its influence and to remove the independence of the RBA board?

We're here because things are bad. The economy is in a very, very bad way. Living standards have fallen by 8.7 per cent since this government came to power. That is incredible. That is more than in any other OECD country. Productivity has collapsed by 6.3 per cent. We've seen that household savings, which were built up during the COVID period, are now down 10.2 per cent. The economy has absolutely stalled. Outside of the pandemic, it's experiencing the slowest GDP growth rates since the 1990s. Things are bad.

When going through this piece of legislation and the intent that is clearly behind it, I think it's important for people who believe in the independence of the RBA to stand up and say, 'Things are bad, but it is not the fault of the RBA.' The RBA have a very clear mandate, a very clear target band that they have to bring inflation down to. That is their job. This side of the House absolutely stands by any measures that can be made to improve the board, the functioning and the way that the RBA works. We have been committed to that all the way through, and the shadow Treasurer's patience in working with the Treasurer on this bill all the way through is a demonstration of our willingness to engage in that process. But we must make this point very clear to Australians: this is not the RBA's fault. We are not here because of the RBA. The challenges you are facing in your economy are not because of the RBA. Do not listen to these attacks. These attacks were done as a prelude to this legislation coming through. They have a clear purpose, and it is not a purpose that aligns with the betterment of Australia. It is not a purpose that will help bring inflation down. It is not a purpose that'll make life easier for Australians and Australian households and businesses. It is purely a political purpose. It will enable the government of the day to influence and put pressure on the decisions of the RBA. I think that is a terrible situation.

We can debate this piece of legislation, but the reality is that it'll go through the House and it'll go up to the Senate, and there we will see a prelude of what a minority Labor-Greens government might look like. We'll get a little sniff of just what a Labor-Greens minority government might look like, because it is there that the Greens will have their way with the RBA. That's a terrifying thought, because we've already heard that it is the express intention of the Greens to enable the Treasurer to have the power to overturn interest rate decisions. That's what they're putting on the table as a starting point. The second one they've talked about is that they want the RBA to tell banks how to lend. This is where the Greens are starting from: a level of intervention which is unlike anything we have seen. This is where we're heading.

So, as sad as I am to see the process of the shadow Treasurer trying to work with the Treasurer on this and to see this come to the resolution it has, I am quite grateful, because we get to see a prelude of what a minority government might look like when the Labor government has to deal with the Greens and when Greens ideology will play out on such important issues as how the RBA board will function and operate. I think the Australian people will be grateful for the opportunity to see that too, because there is nothing more terrifying than the thought of the Greens being at the helm of the most important independent economic body in Australia and having the control and influence to get a Treasurer to overturn the RBA's decision on interest rates. What a terrifying thought! This is exactly what Peter Costello set out, way back in 1996, to ensure would never happen again—that never again could we have a treasurer, like Paul Keating, say, 'I've got the RBA in my pocket.' On this side of the House, we don't want that, and we have fought to maintain that position. As we stand here today, that is exactly where the government is taking us: back in time to a place where the Treasurer has the RBA in their pocket because that is explicitly the desire of the Greens party. We are going back in time and back to a worse place. This will not make life easier for Australians. This will not make life better for Australians. It is short-term opportunism on behalf of the government. They should be ashamed.

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