Latest / Best of Business / Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the warning letter the RBNZ chair sent to Treasury

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Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the warning letter the RBNZ chair sent to Treasury · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
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  Speaker 2: Now back to that warning letter that the chair of
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  Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank sent to Treasury over Adrian All. What
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  Speaker 2: happened was Treasury was getting ready to release the minutes
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  Speaker 2: of a meeting between Adrian Or and Treasury officials. They
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  Speaker 2: told this is Treasury. They told the Reserve Bank chair
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  Speaker 2: Neil quickly they were going to do it, which prompted
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  Speaker 2: him to email back that it would immediately destroy the
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  Speaker 2: goodwill between the two organizations if it happened. Genetib Cherny
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  Speaker 2: is The Herald's Wellington business editor and with us Hello Jane, Hi. Ever,
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  Speaker 2: it's pretty extraordinary.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I mean immediately destroy the good will. That is
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  Speaker 3: pretty strong language. Now I have seen the minute that
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  Speaker 3: was taken after a meeting on February twenty four, shortly
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  Speaker 3: before Adrianau resigned. This was a meeting between Nicola Willis,
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  Speaker 3: Adrian Or, the head of the Treasury in Rennie, the
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  Speaker 3: Board of the Reserve Bank, Neil Quigley, and some other staff.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, to be honest, there was nothing dramatic
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  Speaker 3: about this minute. Like I don't understand what the what
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  Speaker 3: the drama is. So the minute at the minute said
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  Speaker 3: that Adrian Or made it clear that he disagreed with
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  Speaker 3: the Treasury over the amount of government funding he thought,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the Reserve Bank needed. The minutes also say
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  Speaker 3: that he expressed his frustration regarding the relationship between the
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  Speaker 3: Reserve Bank and Treasury, and then he left the meeting.
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  Speaker 3: Now the minute suggests he left the meeting early. I
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  Speaker 3: had that confirmed. He did leave before he was meant to.
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  Speaker 3: Did he leave quietly? Did he storm out? We don't know,
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  Speaker 3: you know, but I don't think it is crazy for
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  Speaker 3: it to be noted that there was a disagreement between
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  Speaker 3: two departments.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does seem quite wild. Is it possible that actually,
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  Speaker 2: is it possible that what Neil, what made Neil quickly
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  Speaker 2: so upset is because he was in the meeting and
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  Speaker 2: he knew how it went down, and and and any
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  Speaker 2: kind of any kind of confirmation, even if it is
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  Speaker 2: a mild confirmation, is not a great confirmation.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look, presumably, And I think at that time things were
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  Speaker 3: really rocky. Like we know through other information release that
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  Speaker 3: Adrian Or raised his voice in another meeting with a
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  Speaker 3: staff member from Treasury over this whole funding issue. You know,
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  Speaker 3: Adrian thought the Reserve Bank needed a lot more funding,
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  Speaker 3: so things were tense, and you know, as we've realized,
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  Speaker 3: the way that the information came out was really vague,
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  Speaker 3: so you know, it just doesn't help. It's one of
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  Speaker 3: these these situations where things obviously weren't great, but it doesn't.
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  Speaker 3: It's almost like at the at this point, the cover
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  Speaker 3: up is worse than the crime.
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  Speaker 2: Ages ago ages ago, though right it totally it jumped
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  Speaker 2: the shark a long time ago. I'll tell you what's
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  Speaker 2: fascinating is that he was angry that Treasury had even
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  Speaker 2: kept notes, which I think is interesting. But also then
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  Speaker 2: you have a look at the Director of Legal Services,
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  Speaker 2: Nick McBride, who writes from from the Reserve Bank to
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  Speaker 2: Treasury and says, even if the note tries to be
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  Speaker 2: quoe careful with its summary, recording such details of the
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  Speaker 2: discussions and enclosing it would undoubtedly inhibit future expression of
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  Speaker 2: blah blah blah blahlah. But he point, I mean, what
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  Speaker 2: he's basically made quite clear there is that the version
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  Speaker 2: that we've got is a very tame version of what
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  Speaker 2: actually went down.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I don't know it looks like it,
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  Speaker 3: and you know I don't I've never worked in the
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  Speaker 3: public sector. I don't understand the risk of version that
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  Speaker 3: there seems to be around these things. But historically there
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  Speaker 3: has been tension between the Reserve Bank and the Treasury.
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  Speaker 3: I can think of numerous examples of this, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's healthy for there to be some tension between the two,
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  Speaker 3: and there is tension between different government departments. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: we've seen this recently with this whole banking inquiry competition issue,
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  Speaker 3: where we had the Commerce Commission say the Reserve Bank
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  Speaker 3: should change its bank capital rules and then Adrian All
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  Speaker 3: say no, and then the Reserve Bank come back and say, okay,
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  Speaker 3: we will change the rules. So I don't really think
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  Speaker 3: it's the end of the world now, Heather. I do
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  Speaker 3: have some other news for you today that's the related
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  Speaker 3: to this. I've heard back from the Ombudsman this afternoon.
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  Speaker 3: I was one of many people who made complaints about
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  Speaker 3: the way the Reserve Bank had released information about Adrianaor's resignation.
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  Speaker 3: The Ombusman has decided that, you know, the Reserve Bank
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  Speaker 3: was in fact entitled to withhold the information it has,
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  Speaker 3: but that there is an overriding public interest in the
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  Speaker 3: Reserve Bank releasing a summary timeline of the key information requested.
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  Speaker 3: So it sounds like we will get the summary timeline
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  Speaker 3: of information. So we'll get a little bit more, but
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  Speaker 3: not necessarily a whole lot more to answer the questions
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  Speaker 3: which I had, which is quite honestly, why did he resign?
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  Speaker 3: You know, did he choose to resign or was he
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  Speaker 3: kind of push to resign?
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  Speaker 2: Personal decision?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, And actually I should just quickly credit Michael Riddell,
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  Speaker 3: who's the person who made these official information requests, and
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  Speaker 3: my colleague j me Nseil who wrote about it for
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  Speaker 3: The Herald.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for that. Hey, listen, have a look at
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  Speaker 2: this stuff and then let us know if there's anything
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  Speaker 2: in it. Jane, I appreciate everything about this our nerdal
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  Speaker 2: tenacity here Jane Tipschraeney, the Herald's Wellington Business editor. Interesting.
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  Speaker 2: What I didn't mention earlier is that Nikola Willis has
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  Speaker 2: had to disagree with Neil Quickley again. Nicola Willis told
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  Speaker 2: The Herald she was aware of Nick Neil Quigley's email.
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  Speaker 2: I disagree with the views put forward by the chair
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  Speaker 2: because I think it's entirely appropriate for treasury officials to
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  Speaker 2: take minutes of a significant government meeting. She said, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know how many more times Nichola Willis can disagree
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  Speaker 2: with Neil Quickley and yet retain him in the position. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: it's bloody awkward.
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