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RESERVE BANK
Green finance: Michele Bullock’s big challenge
New Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has a challenge that goes beyond the traditional responsibilities regarding currency and monetary policy and commercial bank supervision. The achievement of goals relating to price stability, employment and growth are, of course, necessary but in a world of global warming and intensifying inequality no longer sufficient.
The establishment in 2017 of the Network for Greening the Financial System was an important start to making money drive better corporate and government decisions on the climate emergency. The NGFS has expanded to 114 central banks and financial supervisors, including the Reserve Bank of Australia. It has developed evidence-based scenarios for CO2 reduction and established a work group focused on scaling up “green finance”.
Central banks will need to find a way to make all national and global finance “green finance”. In her term as governor, Bullock has nothing that is more difficult or important to achieve.
Stewart Sweeney, Adelaide, SA
Federal government let Lowe do its ’dirty work’
Philip Lowe has been scapegoated by a federal government frightened to pull any one of the numerous fiscal policy levers at its avail to contain inflation. Instead it has left it up to the Reserve Bank to carry 100per cent of the responsibility, via interest rate increases, and then conveniently distanced itself from Lowe and the bank. The government let Lowe do the dirty work and then did not renew or extend his contract when public opinion turned up the heat. It was a very predictable and well planned “execution”.
Andrew Barrington, Barwon Heads
Contract extensions are exceptions to the rule
I normally appreciate Peter Hartcher’s columns for their insight. However, Philip Lowe has not been “executed”, as Hartcher claims (Comment, 15/7). He is coming to the end of a seven-year contract after an impressive 40 years at the Reserve Bank. Even though he has publicly said he would like to carry on, the government would like to give the reins to someone else. Most governors have not received an extension – it is more the exception when they have.
The good news is Lowe has not been sacked, and the government is trying to move away from unilaterally sacking public officials as the Coalition government did. Does anyone remember Christine Holgate? Now that was an “execution”.
Ian McKenzie, Canterbury
Fear of new governor’s poisoned chalice
The RBA has one blunt instrument at its fingertips – interest rates. Raise them, and mortgage holders are adversely impacted. Don’t raise them, and loud voices warn of escalating inflation. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Philip Lowe has become the scapegoat for an economic climate that is far more complex than anything the Reserve Bank can control. Michele Bullock may well have been handed a poisoned chalice.
Claire Merry, Wantirna
It’s time for a woman to take the helm of the bank
Philip Lowe has not actually been fired as some in the media have claimed. He has served his lengthy, seven-year tenure and has not had his contract extended, or renewed. Thanks, Dr Lowe, for serving your contracted period with aplomb. Perhaps now is simply the time to appoint a woman to the job, one regarded by peers and colleagues alike to have impeccable credentials. Welcome, Michele Bullock.
Maurie Johns, Mount Eliza
Why won’t the treasurer apologise for his mistake?
The government wants a new Reserve Bank governor. Not extending Phillip Lowe’s term is an instance of the ALP using its political muscle and not engaging its brain. Jim Chalmers is to blame for much of current inflation. He made a rookie error last year with his self-fulfilling prophecy that “inflation will get worse before it gets better”. But he gets to scapegoat Lowe rather than apologise for his blunder and fall on his sword.
Alun Breward, Malvern East
THE FORUM
Critical independence
I write in support of moving the management of the Medical Research Future Fund from the Health Department to the independent National Health and Medical Research Council (Editorial, 15/7). As chairman of the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) of Singapore from 1999 to 2002, I can share the administrative policy and practice of that government’s medical research budget each year.
The budget, once allocated, was totally and independently administered by the NMRC alone without any other intermediary government agency. All new grants were awarded strictly on their scientific merits and continuation of ongoing grants by their performances annually by a strong peer review committee of the council, approved by the Health Ministry and chaired by the council’s chairperson. The system was well-received by the public and the scientific community.
Yean Lim, Toorak, adjunct clinical professor, Monash University
Need for peer review
The $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund is yet another example cited in the classic text, Parkinson’s Law. The chapter on high finance illustrates how the amount of attention given is in inverse proportion to the amount of money involved. The MRFF should be moved to the National Health and Medical Research Council, where applications are highly competitive and subjected to rigorous peer review.
James Goding, Princes Hill
The system must change
Even the most chilled, prepared mothers can find the going really tough on discharge from hospital after childbirth (Sunday Age, 16/7). What hope do those who are not like this have? Sadly it is another form of unwitting bullying of women who are expected to get on with it, many with no support or ongoing care.
Hospitals do not discharge patients who have had general abdominal surgery after three days so it is cruel to send home a woman, post-Caesarean section, in three days – with a baby to care for to boot. Statistics show that many will need readmission due to complications, so why not provide proper care in the first instance?
Joanne O’Sullivan, Connewarre
End this barbaric practice
I am holidaying in the Murchison area of Western Australia. Last week I came across the most horrific sight. A dingo caught in a dingo trap and left to die a long and horrible death. Locals tell me this is not an isolated event and they have photos of dingoes – our native animals – caught in traps.
In this area of WA, dingoes are little threat to the cattle yet there exists a culture that thinks it is OK to kill them in this sadistic manner. Such horrific practices are validated by a hatred of dingoes which dismisses evidence of their value as a predator that helps control foxes, feral cats, rabbits and kangaroos. All of which impact the environment and profitability of these lands.
Bev Middleton, Macleod
Just put up some signs
I am in total agreement with Katriona Fahey (Letters, 15/7) regarding signage, or lack of it, from VicRoads. I made the trip from Geelong to Melbourne recently via the Princes Highway and Footscray. I decided to use the same route to get back to Geelong only to find the overpass at Brooklyn remains closed, and so began a frustrating and meandering route via Tarneit, Werribee and other places to try and find the highway home. Two hours of needless frustration that could have been easily avoided with half-decent signage.
Greg Stark, Geelong
It’s not Australia’s war
Once again correspondents advocate Australia joining a war on the other side of the world, one which has nothing to do with us. And once again I ask, who of them would be the first to sacrifice their lives in support of this war because that is what they will be asking other Australians to do.
David Parker, Geelong West
Death for generations
Thank you, Waleed Aly, for the timely reminder of the long-lasting legacy of the use of cluster bombs (Comment, 14/7). It seems to me that the United States has no conscience in its decision to supply Ukraine with these horrific weapons, and little real concern for future generations of Ukrainians, adults and children, who will be unexpectedly killed by stepping on or disturbing unexploded, hidden bombs.
I wish that the alacrity in supplying these weapons was matched by an urgency to seek a ceasefire and a peaceful solution to what is the death, destruction and devastation of Ukraine and its people. Surely it is not beyond our human capabilities.
Anne Sgro, Coburg North
A victory for the Liberals
Congratulations to Peter Dutton and his team in Queensland for the byelection result in Fadden. It is very good news and shows that Australians are beginning to wonder about the Albanese government and what it is doing.
Diana Goetz, Mornington
Almost Jeffed again
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett believes that remote workers should take a pay cut to compensate for those who cannot work from home (Sunday Age, 16/7). He would know full well that employers’ savings on rental of workspace, work stations, heating and cooling etc would dwarf any savings that workers make on commuting costs by working from home. In fact, some of these costs are being transferred to individual workers. Kennett never misses an opportunity to try to boost employers by undercutting employees. There is nothing new here, it’s just disappointing that the media falls for his attempt to shape the debate.
Gill Riley, Doncaster East
A most admirable man
What a truly inspiring story about police officer Jimi Kelly – “A determination forged in fire” (Naked City, 15/7). Would that such an inspirational life history reflect the lives of any of our politicians, past or present. Some days it is good to wake up and think the world is not in such a hopeless mess after all when people like this man are in it, and still exist thanks to his good friends and great doctors.
Pamela Bores, Eltham North
Oh for the golden days
On receiving two emails from my power provider, one relating to electricity and the other to gas, and each informing me of imminent rate increases, I followed their advice, which directed me to check for the cheaper rates I would probably incur by changing my plan. After waiting 70 minutes with the phone on speaker, repeatedly being told that the operators were “busier than usual”, and I may “have to wait five minutes”, I was connected with a live human.
In less than 10 minutes he was able to check my records and inform me that I was on a “good plan” and that no cheaper rates were possible. I guess this experience is something we have to live with as we enjoy the benefits that competition brings, compared with the bad old days when we suffered under the monopolies of the State Electricity Commission and the Gas and Fuel Corporation.
Keith Tupper, Macleod
The colours of Monet
Congratulations, Alan Williams, for attending the National Gallery of Victoria to educate yourself about art (Letters, 14/7). May I add some information regarding your comment on Monet’s garden. Whilst I can’t attest to the amount of red wine he may have drunk, Monet did have cataracts which greatly influenced the way he saw his garden; and when he had one lens removed, he also saw colours differently. None of that stopped him from painting and sharing his wonderful art with us.
Christine Moore, Frankston
Benefit of the Voice
On The Drum (ABC TV, 13/7), Warren Mundine reiterated his opposition to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. He was also critical that there had not been enough consultation by the federal government with the Indigenous community in regard to land clearing at Darwin’s Leo Point. Does he not see that if we had a Voice, their position would have been formally heard?
Jenny Callaghan, Hawthorn
All’s right with the world
Top marks to the Saturday editor who moved “Trading Room” from its recent position adjacent to deaths (Tributes and Celebrations) to its rightful place (The Age, 15/7). My Business section is now complete.
Jim Lamborn, Doncaster
Child prodigy Albanese?
Readers inferring Anthony Albanese was part of a generation who opposed the war in Vietnam (Letters, 12 and 14/7) ascribe remarkable abilities to him. He was a two-year-old in 1965 when the war and conscription became a divisive issue in Australia. In 1972, he was nine when the Whitlam government ended conscription and Australia’s mistaken role in Vietnam, begun by the Bob Menzies’ Liberal government. Whatever the prime minister knows about Vietnam is unlikely to have been learnt in infancy or in short pants at school.
Des Files, Brunswick
A most modest champion
What a great goal from the Matildas’ Mary Fowler in their game against France. About the goal she said: “I can’t even remember what I was thinking about. I always forget to celebrate. It all happens so fast then I look back and say ’Why didn’t I do something?‴ (The Age, 16/7).
May you always forget to celebrate and just embrace your teammates, Mary. Nothing irks me more than the fist pumping, punching the corner flag, cartwheels, shirt lifting and playing up to the crowd.
Corrado Tavella, Rosslyn Park, SA
Life and times of coaches
As Collingwood’s Lou Richards said, “There are two types of coaches, those who have been sacked and those who are about to be sacked”.
Geoff Coulsell, Burwood East
AND ANOTHER THING
Reserve Bank
Congratulations to Michele Bullock. I hope she’ll have the collegiate and political support necessary to withstand the misogynistic vitriol likely to be hurled at her when the cash rate rises again.
Jane Ross, San Remo
Take the bull by the horns, Michele.
Carole Ruta, Cheltenham
Of course Philip Lowe had to go. The howling media rabble had to have a scalp.
Monty Arnhold, Port Melbourne
Politics
Has Labor thought to put the new injecting room next to Parliament House? Oh, too close? NIMBY?
David Metcalfe, Newtown
That there was a swing to the LNP in Fadden, despite its illegal use of robo-debt when in power with Stuart Robert, says more about the voters than anything else.
George Djoneff, Mitcham
George Megalogenis writes of the continuing humiliation of Morrison (15/7). It couldn’t happen to a nicer or more deserving chap.
Les Aisen, Elsternwick
It will take more than a miracle for Scott Morrison to leave parliament before Christmas.
Peng Ee, Castle Cove, NSW
It’s not just Morrison who is a waste of space in parliament. What’s the point of Peter Dutton with his endless negativity?
Richard Laing, Carlton North
The robo-debt report has lessons for the current NDIS review. The NDIS must be administered in the interests of its participants, not the government.
Phil Lipshut, Elsternwick
Furthermore
It ws great to see the Matildas singing the national anthem with enthusiasm, in contrast to the AFL players who mostly don’t.
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East
Alice Glover (15/7), you’re not the only one who thinks owning an island and a volcano is “slightly weird”. The volcano obviously didn’t approve either.
Raeleene Gregory, Ballarat East
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