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Andrew Dickens: Quigley's resignation is bad for the economy · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we had the resignation of the chair of the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Reserve Bank on Friday, which shows you just how badly
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: our economy has been run for the last six years
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in my opinion. So Neil quickly marched off into the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: sunset at five forty nine pm on a Friday. That's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: just late enough for the news to miss the TV
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: six pm bulletin. That's an old PR trick in it,
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  Speaker 1: leaving the shock value to dissipate over the weekend before
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the start of play today. But there we go, and
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  Speaker 1: it's evidence to me that successive governments national and Labor
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  Speaker 1: and the Reserve Bank have failed to respect each other
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  Speaker 1: or realize that even though they are independent, their actions
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  Speaker 1: combine and affect all of us. So back in the
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  Speaker 1: COVID years, the Reserve Bank reacted and made money essentially free,
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  Speaker 1: but the Labor government wanted to be seen to be
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  Speaker 1: doing something, so they started overspending. We all know this.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: They started throwing borrowed money away. And the result of
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  Speaker 1: all this free money and all this government spending was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a superheated economy that obviously crashed spectacularly and spectacularly quickly.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: So the Reserve Bank then reacted again and made the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: money expensive again to attack the overheating put the interest
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  Speaker 1: rates up. But the new government, this time National again
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: wanted to be seen to be doing something, so they
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  Speaker 1: started canceling government expenditure and that ended out throwing us
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  Speaker 1: into an even deeper economic funk than anyone had expected,
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  Speaker 1: including the Reserve Bank. Now, in both scenarios, the governments
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  Speaker 1: didn't seem to realize what was happening at the reserve
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  Speaker 1: bank of our economy, and the Reserve Bank was too
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  Speaker 1: proud to take into account the stupidity of governments. They
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  Speaker 1: were working against each other. They're supposed to be independent,
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  Speaker 1: but that's all supposed to be pulling together to help us.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: All government, i think, needs to heed the advice that
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  Speaker 1: they give to local councils. Just stick to your knitting.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Your job is to do the basics. Fund health and
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: education and the police, and build us stuff to help
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  Speaker 1: us do business, like roads and rail and ferries. But
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about the price of butter
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: or the number of supermarkets. The market will do that,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the Reserve Bank will do that. And remember, governments, you
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: need to keep the borrowing as low as reasonable. Let
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the Reserve Bank worry about inflation and the big financial stuff.
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  Speaker 1: But that hasn't happened the last two terms, and that
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  Speaker 1: is what should happen. That's how successful governments respect the
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  Speaker 1: independence of the Reserve Bank, and that's how the last
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  Speaker 1: two amateur governments did not. For more from Early Edition
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks at b
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.