David Farrar: A transparent Governor

Jason Walls writes:

By the time Breman took over, the bank’s reputation appeared to be at a near all-time low.

But, in the short four months she’s been in charge, that tarnished reputation has been on a fast track toward recovery.

On transparency, she’s nailed her brief.

Throughout Orr’s tenure, and Graeme Wheeler before him, interviews were very rare.

Not for Breman.

Since taking over in December, she’s done 23 interviews with media from major players such as 1News and Newstalk ZB, to smaller outlets such as NBR and Interest.co.nz. She’s even sat down with financial blogs.

Meanwhile, Breman’s delivered major speeches across the country as well as fronting five press conferences.

When it became apparent the conflict in the Middle East was likely to have a material impact on New Zealand’s economy, she fronted to business leaders and reporters to ease concerns.

This is indeed a very good start, and hopefully it will continue. The Governor is our most powerful appointed official. They should be accessible to the media.

At the start of her tenure, she suggested she would look into making the votes of the members of the Monetary Policy Committee – that’s the board tasked with setting the official cash rate – public, so everyone can see which way they voted.

So far, who voted which way is still mostly shrouded in mystery.

That would be good.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition