RBA overhaul to put board members in spotlight

The new-look Reserve Bank will likely have a specialist board with economic experts to set interest rates who will need to take more individual responsibility for their decisions.

The long-awaited independent review of the Reserve Bank has called for a more transparent operation where press conferences are held after every meeting, like the Federal Reserve does in the US, with board members speaking publicly on occasion. 

Central to its recommendations is the creation of two separate boards, one responsible for governance and the other to set interest rates.

The suite of reforms recommended by the three reviewers should bolster the central bank's leadership and decision-making and help prevent communication missteps such as when the governor suggested interest rates would stay at their record lows until 2024.

The Labor government will legislate to create the two boards and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has signalled his willingness to wave through sensible reforms. 

In the eyes of the reviewers, board members are not accountable enough for their decisions, especially compared to international examples.

The reviewers recommend populating the board with business leaders and academic and professional economists and keeping the Treasury secretary's spot on the board.

They recommended external members serve on a part-time basis of around one day a week, noting that external views were valuable but potential conflicts of interest should be better managed.  

As well as having fewer meetings to free up time for strategic decision-making, the reviewers recommended creating more opportunities to hear from RBA staff.

Their investigation uncovered a culture of staff members pressured to align with the views of their direct managers and senior leaders, creating a risk of "groupthink" on key issues.

The reviewers were mostly happy with the framework underpinning the bank's monetary policy strategy, including its flexible inflation target of two-to-three per cent, but called for some tweaks, including a clearer explanation of how its two objectives of pricing stability and full employment are interacting.

But while the reviewers want the RBA to keep its independence, they said monetary and fiscal policy "should not be in isolation from each other".

All of those suggestions have the government's in-principle stamp of approval.

Also on Thursday, the treasurer is expected to name two new board members to replace outgoing members Wendy Craik and Mark Barnaba. Neither sought reappointment. 

"This review, its recommendations and our response are all about ensuring the Reserve Bank has the best frameworks, objectives, processes and expertise," Dr Chalmers said. 

Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said the coalition planned from the start of the process "to be as bipartisan as possible" and the direction of the review had been positive.

"There have been real mistakes made by the Reserve Bank in recent times, and they're laid out clearly in the review," he told ABC radio on Thursday.

"People have paid a high price for those areas, whether it's households or businesses across Australia and so we don't want to see those repeated."

The Albanese government began the review of the Reserve Bank last year.