Mike's Minute: The Reserve Bank mess is finally at an end

Rhetorical question - why do you think Neil Quigley quit on a Friday night?

The key is, he would have been booted if he didn’t walk. So it sort of ends a shambolic and shameful period for what should be one of our most esteemed institutions.

Michael Reddell: One more Treasury OIA about RB spending

All the interest in the Orr-departure story – the background, and the subsequent and ongoing efforts to mislead the public by the Board and the temporary Governor – seems to now centre on the Ombudsman. Various people, including me, have appealed the Bank’s OIA obstructionism on specific requests and the Ombudsman seems to be pursuing the issue reasonably expeditiously.

Ani O'Brien: A Week Is A Long Time - 14 June 2025

A NZ Politics weekly wrap-up

Total system failure resulted in teen’s death and no one wanted to talk about it

In January 2023, in New Zealand, a 17-year old girl died of starvation alone in emergency accommodation and wasn’t found for two days. When her distraught parents arrived to see her body a police officer scolded them for using her name and female pronouns because she “identified as a boy”. This was the final insult to injury for parents who had fought New Zealand social services (government and NGOs) over their child for years…

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Can we trust another word out of Neil Quigley's mouth?

I don't enjoy saying what I'm about to say because personally I quite like Neil Quigley, but I think that he needs to quit as the chair of the Reserve Bank - simply because I do not think that we can ever trust a single word that comes out of that man's mouth again as the chair.

He has been busted telling not just one, but quite a lot of fibs about Adrian Orr's resignation.

David Farrar: Reserve Bank confirms Orr quit over funding

The Herald reports:

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has confirmed Adrian Orr resigned as Governor as he wanted more funding for the central bank than the Government was willing to provide.

The bank said in a statement released under the Official Information Act that its board – chaired by Neil Quigley – conceded a lesser amount of funding was fine.

Mike's Minute: The unanswered questions around the Reserve Bank's funding

Some questions for you around the Reserve Bank and their funding.

Firstly, the Finance Minister is to be congratulated on her handling of the fiscal matters in reducing the expenditure by 25% – this is a DOGE like achievement.

Michael Reddell: What was the story re Orr’s resignation?

It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been (controversially) reappointed in late 2022 to a second five-year term that still had a little over three years to run.

Michael Reddell: Not much parliamentary scrutiny

This was the post I was planning to write this morning to mark Orr’s final day. That said, if the underlying events – deliberate attempts to mislead Parliament – were Orr’s doing, the post is more about the apparent uselessness of Parliament (specifically the Finance and Expenditure Committee) in holding him and the rest of the Bank (other MPC members, Board) to account. This is just one small example.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Why Did Willis Reappoint RBNZ Chair Quigley....

Why Did Willis Reappoint RBNZ Chair Quigley after saying Governor Orr's re-hiring "appalled" her? It was Quigley who hired, and who re-hired, him.

The funny money plot thickens. I've done a mini Watergate investigation but still can't get answers. Is there a cover-up? Governor Orr, who has left the RBNZ in a huff after causing rampant inflation & "engineering" stagnation, was hired in the first place on the strong recommendation of RBNZ Board Chair, Neil Quigley. Then he was re-hired in 2022 for another five year term, again on Quigley's recommendation.

Michael Reddell: A Letter

After the Reserve Bank’s appearance on 20 February at the Finance and Expenditure Committee (the Governor, his macro deputy Karen Silk, and his chief economist Paul Conway) on the previous day’s Monetary Policy Statement, I wrote a post here about it, focused on a number of areas in which Orr, either actively abetted or silently accompanied by his senior colleagues, had been stringing along or actively misleading (or worse) the Commitee. The post was headed Orr at it again, a reminder that there had been all too many such cases from the Governor over recent years – mostly misleading FEC (a rather serious matter) but also not infrequently any media outlets that ever posed slightly awkward questions. It is a long list and I won’t bore you with details (you can search: Google and “croaking cassandra, Orr, misleading” appears to work well).

Kerre Woodham: Phil Goff stuffed up royally and paid the price

Crikey, I barely stepped away from the microphone yesterday and we had a double whammy news-wise. Phil Goff sacked as High Commissioner to London for an intemperate comment and question, Greg Foran resigning as Air New Zealand CEO. I heard someone on The Huddle with Ryan Bridge last night saying Greg Foran can now become the High Commissioner, Adrian Orr would become Air New Zealand CEO, and Phil Goff will take over as Reserve Bank Governor - all change.

Michael Reddell: $11 billion and out

I’d been thinking last week of writing a post looking ahead to the end of Adrian Orr’s term (due to have run until March 2028) and offering some thoughts on structural changes the government should be looking to make, to complete and refine the Reserve Bank reform programme kicked off by the previous government in 2018. Some of that is now overwhelmed by events, but the importance of the issues – and the medium-term opportunities to deliver a better central bank – hasn’t. So although I will offer a few thoughts at the end of this post on yesterday’s shock news, and the unsatisfactory handling of it, and perhaps even fewer on Orr’s overall tenure, first I’m going to focus on the future.

Kerre Woodham: It's hard to find anyone sorry Adrian Orr's gone

Well, the announcement yesterday was on a par with John Key’s resignation. The Reserve Bank Governor, Adrian Orr, pulled the plug on his career yesterday with no real explanation as to why – although it's no secret that there is friction between the Governor and the Finance Minister. You know, I know and certainly Adrian Orr knows that if she could have sacked him, she would, rather than inherit him with his five-year term as given to him by the former Labour government.

Mike's Minute: Adrian Orr leaving is excellent

The fact Adrian Orr is leaving is excellent.

It shows a level of accountability and responsibility for what has been a ruinous period for the New Zealand economy.

The receipts and reviews are in, and the story is stark.

David Farrar: Adrian Orr resigns

Adrian Orr has resigned as Reserve Bank Governor. I normally try to highlight the good as well as the bad when someone resigns, but I have to admit in this case I struggle.

I welcomed his appointment in 2017. I noted the currency rose on his appointment and that he had a very good legacy at the NZ Super Fund. And this is true – I thought he did an exceptional job at NZSF, and thought he would do the same at the Reserve Bank.

Michael Reddell: Why is such rank dishonesty tolerated?

“We were one of the first central banks in the world to be tightening; we were one of the first central banks in the world to be easing”

Those were Adrian Orr’s words last Thursday to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee at their hearing on the Bank’s latest Monetary Policy Statement. He’d been asked by National MP Dan Bidois what the Bank was doing to learn from too slow tightening a few years back and, perhaps, too slow easing last year. Orr’s words above are at about 23.50 here.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The graph that shows how the RBNZ Mistakenly Caused NZ's Worst Slump since 1991 (barring Covid's 2020)

What have we got to know about Reserve Bank of NZ Governor Adrian Orr over the years? He's hot headed, can't take criticism from folks more knowledgeable about economics than himself, gets carried away & overexcited, and is desperate to be in the news. Orr told the country he wanted to "engineer a recession" to stop the inflation he created. Instead he engineered three (Stats NZ data has become as unreliable as the Census since the Chief Statistician / CEO there hasn't has a statistics qualification for over a decade). But there was never a need.

Michael Reddell: Orr at it again

I decided not to bother listening to the Reserve Bank’s appearance at FEC yesterday morning. After all, the OCR decision had been much as expected and foreshadowed, the forecast tracks etc hadn’t changed much, and – with all due respect to some new FEC members – how searching was any questioning really likely to be?

But an old colleague listened in, and was rather concerned to hear Orr’s deputy chief executive for macroeconomics and monetary (the one with no qualifications or background in either subject) Karen Silk making what appeared to be the claim that the Bank and MPC had got the trends in inflation about right.

Michael Reddell: Orr on Q&A – Part II

My post this morning [ https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/12/michael-reddell-more-outright.html ] was based on Adrian Orr’s Q&A interview as found on TVNZ+. However, it turns out that that wasn’t the full interview which (thanks to the kind people at Q&A for pointing me to it) is now available on Q&A’s Youtube account here. The full interview is almost half an hour, and is probably worth watching if you haven’t already watched the selections on TVNZ+ – it is a more rounded presentation and chance for Orr to tell his story.

Michael Reddell: More outright dishonesty from Orr

The Reserve Bank Governor has given an interview to TVNZ’s Katie Bradford, apparently done under the aegis of the Q&A show but too late in the year to actually be broadcast on Q&A itself or to be done by Jack Tame, Q&A’s regular and most demanding interviewer.