RBA pushes out research boss John Simon as governor Michele Bullock overhauls operations
The central bank’s research culture came under significant criticism in the independent review, released last year.
The review said there were instances of research being heavily edited or reversed to align with the “RBA paradigm”. Research findings that were “inconvenient” were sometimes not released or progressed far enough to be made public.
The RBA’s senior leaders were sometimes dismissive of economic research, while at other times research was commissioned to “rationalise and defend decisions rather than to inform them”, according to the review.
The findings were targeted at the leadership of the RBA as a collective, not Dr Simon in his capacity as the head of research. Dr Simon had advocated internally for some of the measures put forward by the review.
The review recommended the soon-to-be-created monetary policy board oversee the central bank’s research strategy to ensure the agenda was policy relevant and took in external views from universities and think tanks.
It also recommended incentives for staff to publish research in academic journals, which is more common in foreign central banks.
The RBA may look to fill Dr Simon’s vacancy with an external appointment, as Ms Bullock moves to inject fresh blood into the team.
Dr Chalmers last November appointed Bank of England boffin Andrew Hauser as deputy governor. Ms Bullock in December appointed Treasury official Sarah Hunter as the chief economist following Luci Ellis’ departure to Westpac.
Malcolm Turnbull’s former private secretary, Sally Cray, was appointed to the newly created chief communications officer role in November, after the RBA review found the central bank’s approach to communicating with the media and the public was not up to scratch.
The review said the tendency over the past decade to promote internally had fostered an insular intellectual culture.
Its signature recommendation, the creation of separate boards for monetary policy and governance, has stalled in the Senate due to a stand-off between Labor and the Coalition over the future of the RBA’s six existing external board members.
