You can bank on me making tough decisions, says Jim Chalmers

Jim Chalmers says making the independent central bank more accountable for its decisions is a focus for a three-person panel conducting a sweeping review into the RBA.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Jim Chalmers says making the independent central bank more accountable for its decisions is a focus for a three-person panel conducting a sweeping review into the RBA’s governance, operations and performance.

He also told Sky News that he was prepared to be an “unpopular Treasurer” and make tough decisions in the May budget to help in the fight against soaring inflation, which reached a 30-year high of 7.8 per cent in December.

Dr Chalmers said the RBA review, which will deliver its report at the end of March, “isn’t about one person or one decision or one set of decisions … It’s about making sure we get the processes and structure and objectives of the Reserve Bank right, and part of that is to make sure the right accountability structures are in place so that when the Reserve Bank board makes the decision, they communicate that decision effectively, and they are accountable for that decision as an independent organisation.

“Of course, they should be accountable for the decisions that they take,” he said.

“They should be asked to explain them clearly, so that people can make decisions based on that information.”

Dr Chalmers said the three-person expert panel conducting the review had “done a heap of consultation”.

“And I know that one of their focuses is how do we make sure that when a decision is taken, it’s communicated effectively, and also that people who take those decisions are accountable for it.”

Dr Chalmers said getting inflation under control remained “the defining challenge in that economy”.

“Already, we’ve had to say no to some spending proposals from around the country that in normal times, without these kinds of fiscal constraints, that we would like to do. But governing is about making decisions. They’re not always going to be popular, obviously.

“But we need to work out what we can afford, what’s most important, how we sequence some of our other priorities, and that’s what we’re doing.”