Media Statement - 30th October 2007
A Rudd Labor Government will improve the transparency of future
Reserve Bank Board appointments and remove political considerations from
the selection of candidates. It will also improve procedures to ensure only
the best qualified candidates are appointed.
Federal Labor will ask
the Reserve Bank Governor and the Treasury Secretary to advise on new
procedures to safeguard against candidates with partisan political
commitments being short listed for consideration by the Treasurer.
They will also be asked to advise on improving the transparency of
appointments and to recommend enhanced background vetting procedures to ensure that only the highest quality candidates are
considered.
It is vitally important that the character and
qualifications of candidates for appointment to the Bank’s board are beyond
reproach. Reserve Bank Board appointments should be merit based and not a
political gift of the Treasurer of the day.
The changes to be pursued
by Federal Labor would seek to enhance the public’s confidence in the independence of Board appointments.
The changes
would seek to prevent a re-run of the Robert Gerard affair where Treasurer
Peter Costello intervened in the short listing process to nominate and
eventually select for the Board an influential Liberal Party donor who was
subject to a high profile tax office investigation that resulted in more than
$100 million in tax and penalties being paid.
There must never again be a
re-run of events like this. The public’s confidence in the independence of
the Reserve Bank Board is simply too
important.