A former Reserve Bank chairperson says he doesn't think there will be long-term damage to trust in the central bank over its handling of Adrian Orr's departure.
Arthur Grimes told Q+A there were short-term concerns about its reputation and he believed the central bank had made some "misleading" statements.
"Probably the top of the list [of the RBNZ’s priorities] was to ensure privacy," Grimes said.
"But having said that, it was important not to say something that could potentially mislead, and I think some of the statements were misleading.”
Further revelations, reported by The Spinoff, show the bank didn't publicly disclose a board meeting around the time it was disputing its funding with the Government.
A governor and a chairman of the board have departed, and the Government admits being unhappy about the RBNZ’s actions. (Source: 1News)
Former Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr resigned in March, followed by chairperson Neil Quigley late last month.
The circumstances around Orr’s departure remained unclear for months. When his decision was announced on March 5, little reason was provided beyond that it was his "personal decision".
Subsequent Official Information Act (OIA) responses and a direction from the Chief Ombudsman to release more information attributed Orr’s resignation to a disagreement with Finance Minister Nicola Willis and the RBNZ’s board over the central bank's funding.
Quigley said in June he regretted not releasing information on Orr’s resignation sooner.
"As well as our obligations under the OIA, we needed to take into careful consideration the former Governor’s exit agreement and privacy law,” he said at the time.
Grimes said the Reserve Bank “has always been a very respected organisation that has taken a low-key role and tried to keep out of the media in this sort of way”.
He said the Reserve Bank could have been more straightforward and transparent.
“It's a short-term problem for the Reserve Bank, but we've seen the governor go, we've seen the chairman of the board go.
“I expect there'll be some good replacements for those people coming up soon, and I don't think there'll be any long-term damage for the Reserve Bank out of this.”
Grimes said it was "hugely important" that the bank remained an independent institution.
The Finance Minister said earlier this week she had been as "upfront and transparent" as possible about Orr. Willis told RNZ she didn’t have all the details of the employment dispute between Orr and the Reserve Bank.
Willis added she was “unhappy” about the Reserve Bank’s communication to the public and that she expected them to be “as publicly accountable and transparent as possible".
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Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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