Chalmers declines to endorse Lowe to continue as RBA boss

Jim Chalmers has declined to endorse Reserve Bank of Australia governor Phil Lowe as the central bank chief faces mounting scrutiny amid successive rate hikes.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Jim Chalmers has declined to endorse Reserve Bank of Australia governor Phil Lowe as the central bank chief faces mounting scrutiny amid successive rate hikes.

The Treasurer on Sunday said he would make a decision on whether to extend Dr Lowe’s appointment in the middle of the year in consultation with Anthony Albanese and cabinet.

It comes after several Labor MPs and the Greens last week criticised the RBA boss for ignoring the plight of mortgage holders and renters amid nine consecutive interest rate hikes.

Dr Chalmers rebuffed multiple questions on whether Dr Lowe was doing his job properly, but acknowledged the RBA boss had “a hard job to do” attempting to tame inflation without crunching the economy.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“I genuinely respect his independence, as I’ve said probably hundreds of times in opposition and now in government – I think that’s an important feature of the system,” Dr Chalmers said.

“I’m not going to second-guess the decisions. I’ve got my own job to do – that best combination of relief, repair and restraint, and that’s what I’m focused on.”

Dr Chalmers said parliamentarians had the opportunity to raise any issues they had with Dr Lowe directly.

The RBA governor is scheduled to appear before a House of Representatives economics committee and a Senate estimates committee this week.

It comes after the Australian Financial Review reported Dr Lowe briefed commercial bank traders at a private lunch two days after the RBA lifted the cash rate to 3.35 per cent.

The newspaper said the appearance coincided with a modest fall in bond prices.

Dr Lowe last year was forced to apologise to a Senate economics committee for suggesting that the cash rate would remain at 0.1 per cent until 2024.

Dr Chalmers on Sunday promised to release the gov­ernment’s initial response to a wide-sweeping review of the RBA that is currently under way before the May budget is handed down.