There is a story today in the Financial Review that the Reserve Bank’s chief economist, Sarah Hunter, accepted a gift from disgraced consulting/accounting firm, EY. The gift was an invitation to be a guest of EY at the Parliament House Midwinter Ball at a 10-seat table which would have cost EY $22,000!

You have to ask what EY was buying.

This may seem a minor conflict of interest – but a conflict of interest it is. It is part of a long history of RBA collaboration with business to restrict demand so as to reduce workers’ power. Who can remember a monetary policy statement that did not refer to potential wages break out and the need to ensure that does not happen? And of course that wage break out never happened.

Meantime, RBA management has been busy lining up juicy retirement jobs in the finance sector.  Ex-staff have joined banks, while past governors can be found on the boards of various banks and sometimes even as the chair of the boards. Former governor, Glenn Stevens, is chair of Macquarie Bank, which is being hauled over the coals for booking fictitious trades in the US and UK and misreporting Australian trades, among other matters.

And we recall the RBA advising then Treasurer, Wayne Swan, to make board appointments from among business leaders rather than appoint others such as ACTU representatives who, it was suggested, might have “sectional interests”. The RBA apparently never saw business as a sectional interest.

For more on this see our Reserve Bank Review Submission.