Reserve Bank of Australia workers access cafes subsidised by taxpayers

While regular Australians are getting slugged $6 or more for their morning coffee, their taxes are subsidising cafes at the Reserve Bank where workers can get a caffeine fix for less than $2.

Regular Australians may be getting slugged $6 for a flat white, but employees at the Reserve Bank of Australia are paying less than a third of that amount for a subsidised coffee and are accessing cheap cafe lunches every day.

While the rest of the country has to weather the storm of one of the worst cost-of-living crises in living memory, sky-high inflation, and 13 cash rate rises imposed by the reserve bank, News Corp can reveal RBA staff have been immune to the hip-pocket crunch, with coffee at their offices costing as little as $1.95 a cup. 

A sandwich there costs $4.95, while a salad costs $6.90.

The average sandwich purchased in the Sydney CBD ranges from $14 to $17, while a small pre-packaged salad can reach $17 or higher.

Meanwhile, it can also be revealed that staff signed up to the RBA-exclusive health fund – the Reserve Bank Health Society Limited (RBHS) – can access “gold” hospital cover for $291 per month for a single. A comparative private health insurance gold cover from the Health Insurance Fund of Australia Limited costs $371.65 a person every month.

Australian Taxpayers Alliance president Brian Marlow. Picture: Supplied

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock. Picture: Nikki Short

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance slammed the staff privileges at the federal bank as “not in keeping with the times”.

ATA president Brian Marlow said subsidies for staff at the RBA, which is accountable to the Australian parliament and subject to government oversight, were “a joke”.

“These perks are a joke and need to be axed; the question is are these subsidies available in the private sector,” he said. 

“Does the average worker get these kinds of subsidies in the private sector? Obviously, they don’t.

“Many people work hard and are doing second jobs because they can’t afford the cost-of-living crisis — and then their taxes are used in part to pay for bureaucrats to get these subsidies.

“I know people in the corporate world who don’t even get subsidies any more, or access to cushy healthcare deals as part of their work.

“These magic canteens don’t exist any more, they are part of a bygone golden era and should end.”

Taxpayers fund subsidised canteens at the Reserve Bank offices in Sydney and Melbourne. File picture: iStock

RBA boss Michele Bullock told struggling taxpayers they may have to sell their homes and suffer “cashflow shortfalls” last year, a month before it was revealed she had secured a base salary of $1.081m for her first 12 months in the top job.

Meanwhile, Bullock’s predecessor, Philip Lowe, was paid a base salary of $974,602 in the 2022-23 financial year.

In his last year as RBA governor, it was revealed Mr Lowe’s interest rate was locked at half the standard variable rate in an RBA loan, to buy his home in Sydney’s east.

A spokesman for the Reserve Bank of Australia said it operates cafes at 8 Chifley Square in Sydney and at Note Printing Australia at Craigieburn in Melbourne.

“Critical work … takes place at these sites 24/7,” the spokesman said.

Originally published as Reserve Bank of Australia workers access cafes subsidised by taxpayers