RBA hosts $80k Christmas party after 13 rate hikes

The central bank’s lavish Christmas party came as Australians grappled with a cost-of-living crisis, and included more than $8000 on staff who did not end up attending.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

The Reserve Bank of Australia splashed more than $80,000 on its Christmas party last December as Australians grappled with a cost-of-living crisis, including more than $8000 on staff who did not ­attend the event in Sydney.

Following its decision to ­increase the cash rate more than a dozen times since May 2022, the RBA invited “all bank staff” to the party at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth.

The hotel’s ballroom was booked for 650 guests, of whom 575 attended The event featured a DJ and extensive audio-visuals at a combined cost of more than $10,000. Staff were served kingfish ceviche, grilled lamb cutlets and potato gnocchi, alongside NV Legacy Brut and semillon sauvignon blanc as part of a food and beverage package that came to more than $70,000. Of this, $8250 was wasted as 75 staff who were invited did not go.

The RBA and Jim Chalmers did not comment when contacted by The Weekend Australian.

On top of the Christmas party, the bank also held an International Women’s Day event in March of the same year that featured Matildas player Kyah Simon as the keynote speaker at a cost of $11,000.

Former Labor strategist Kos Samaras said he was shocked the RBA ticked off on an $80,000 event at the same time Australians were feeling the pain of so many rate hikes.

“Australians perceive the RBA as a bit out of touch and, in part, as responsible for their problems. This sort of thing doesn’t help that brand,” he said. “They shouldn’t be doing that in an affordability crisis and ­especially as people feel the pain of it over Christmas.”

As part of efforts to recruit staff and bolster its brand, the RBA also spent nearly $23,000 on promotional merchandise in the 2023-24 financial year, including gym towels, tote bags and stress balls. More than $3000 was spent on M&Ms in cellophane bags with the RBA logo on the front, and more than $3500 on T-shirts.

The revelations follow scrutiny over the bank in recent years for spending on office parties and lunches at a cost of many thousands of dollars.

In 2021, an “IT department Christmas party” was booked at a cost of $14,000, only to be cancelled because of another Covid-19 outbreak that led to the loss of the bank’s $9000 deposit.

Criticism was also levelled against then-RBA governor Philip Lowe in 2023 after it was revealed he received a half-price loan from the central bank to buy his five-bedroom home in Sydney’s east.

The discovery by Sky News came as 880,000 Australians braced for their fixed-rate mortgages to end, with many people frustrated over what Dr Lowe later called “unclear guidance” when he said in 2020 that interest rates would stay low for the next four years.

The Treasurer this month said the RBA’s interest rate ­increases were “smashing the economy”, in a sharpening of language on the central bank’s use of rate hikes over the past two years.

Labor is hoping for a rate cut before the next election, due by May, which would feature strongly in its campaign on tackling the cost-of-living crisis alongside policies such as the revamped stage-three tax cuts.

Mr Samaras said it was clear Dr Chalmers was “trying to make the point to constituents the government and RBA were separate, ensuring Australians knew the central bank was independent and made its decisions on rate hikes.

“The fact is, people still hold politicians responsible for not keeping institutions in check, or holding them to account when it comes to this sort of thing,” he said.