I think the reality is that there are only 3 members of the RBA Board who wield any real power when it comes to the economic destiny of Australia:
Ian Macfarlane - Governor of the RBA
Glenn Stevens - Deputy Governor of the RBA
Dr Ken Henry - Secretary to the Treasury
These are ex-officio positions - they are members of the Board by virtue of the positions they hold - this is legislated under the RBA Act.
The first two are, of course, the top two positions in the RBA.
The third is, by any measure, chief adviser to the man who is Chief Financial Officer of Australia Incorporated (Peter Costello). Ken Henry is very much Peter Costello's man on the ground (or at least his man on the RBA Board).
The others are really just there to make up the numbers.
I'm not saying that certain other members of the Board aren't extremely powerful in other areas, just that I doubt democracy in the that Board works the way that it might in others.
As a general rule, the non statutory members tend to come from business and academia.
Warwick McKibbon (ex - RBA) is currently the academic on the Board. Previous academics have included Professors Adrian Pagan and Bob Gregory. It is interesting that the three all come from ANU (maybe not that interesting, it is the best economics school in Australia).
MB
Ian Macfarlane - Governor of the RBA
Glenn Stevens - Deputy Governor of the RBA
Dr Ken Henry - Secretary to the Treasury
These are ex-officio positions - they are members of the Board by virtue of the positions they hold - this is legislated under the RBA Act.
The first two are, of course, the top two positions in the RBA.
The third is, by any measure, chief adviser to the man who is Chief Financial Officer of Australia Incorporated (Peter Costello). Ken Henry is very much Peter Costello's man on the ground (or at least his man on the RBA Board).
The others are really just there to make up the numbers.
I'm not saying that certain other members of the Board aren't extremely powerful in other areas, just that I doubt democracy in the that Board works the way that it might in others.
As a general rule, the non statutory members tend to come from business and academia.
Warwick McKibbon (ex - RBA) is currently the academic on the Board. Previous academics have included Professors Adrian Pagan and Bob Gregory. It is interesting that the three all come from ANU (maybe not that interesting, it is the best economics school in Australia).
MB
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