Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald political editor on Nicola Willis saying the RBNZ should have given the reasons behind Adrian Orr's departure

The Finance Minister says the Reserve Bank should have given the reasons behind Governor Adrian Orr's abrupt departure - sooner.

It released documents yesterday showing Orr resigned over Government funding being well below the Budget allocation he sought.

Nicola Willis criticised the central bank's delay in outlining the reasons.

NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan explained further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editors with us Thomas.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hallow here the good afternoon, right, So.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What stern words did Nichola have for Neil?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, Yes, so we're back into day two, month three.
I think of the scrap over a y Adrian Or
resigned from the Reserve Bank. The bank came under serious
criticism for the fact that's taken months to get these
official papers out explaining the reason for the resignation. Nicola Willis,

(00:27):
the Finance Minister, criticized that this morning, saying that she'd
spoken to the Bank's chairperson, Neil Quigley, and expressed my
view that the bank did not manage that official information
request well and I expect them to do better, which
was swiftly followed by a statement from Quigley himself which
acknowledged that quote. The bank was later producing a response
to some of the oas we received on Adrianaw's resignation.

(00:50):
I regret that this delay occurred end quote. So an
interesting war of words there between the Finance Minister and
the Reserve Bank today, which you don't often.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Why is this what they're talking about, Thomas? Why why
are they focusing on the delays? In the OYA response,
when clearly the bigger problem is that the chair of
the Reserve Bank has told multiple FIBs about this.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, you are right, it does rather look like a distraction,
and we don't really have we don't really have anything
firm from the government about whether whether they buy that
explanation around the fact that this was originally quickly said
that this was a personal decision to resign. Of course,
all decisions to resign are, to a certain extent, personal decisions,

(01:34):
and obviously one of many.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Thomas one of many FIBs. Anyway, carry on.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
But as we discovered yesterday, it was actually a probably
better characterized I would personally, I think the more accurate
way of describing it would be a professional disagreement over
the level of funding the bank was receiving, which you know,
I mean, that's a perfectly fine reason to quit. Yeah,
people quit over money all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I just think, I think of the sins taking your time,
and I mean, I don't love it, but dawdling on
the OIA response is the least of the sins here. Anyway,
We'll talk to Nicola about it when she's with us
on Monday. Talk to me about this poll. We've got
two poles now in the last couple of weeks week
in a bit that have put our Labor ahead of National. Now, granted, Thomas,

(02:18):
it's tight, but National should be worried about this, shouldn't they?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, I mean usin No. Obviously, it's never good to
be behind your main opposition opposition during any part of
the parliamentary term you're in government. Obviously Labor was behind
National for a bit in the twenty twenty seventeen twenty
twenty term, and a bit like this, this Taxpayer's Union
poll shows that the right block would still be in government.

(02:44):
It's just that National is behind Labor. But obviously with
those support parties, the National lead government would would still
be in government. I actually would counter that and think,
you know, that was a pretty tough budget. They rolled
out that the pay equity stuff was pretty controvert and
the key we saver changes. You know New Zealanders love
their key we savers and the government ready took an

(03:06):
X to the key we saver subsidies. So I would
think that if if you could get away with that
level of cut and only lose a few points in
the polls, I mean, National fell about a point in
this Taxpayers Union poll today it's on thirty three point five.
It was on thirty four point six last month. That
isn't actually that bad a slump considering the level of
political pain they could have been up for given the

(03:28):
amount of cutting in the budget.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
This is true, but they were not popular even before that,
and should they not be worried about that?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yes, I mean you it is, I mean every part
of political party at the moment all that both the
major parties are relatively unpopular. Yes, it's incredible that you know,
we've been I've got the numbers in front of me,
and National's polling has had a three in front of
it for month, month, one month. I mean, I think
they've only once in January twenty four they cracked the
forty percent threshold, which is basically where the Key government lived.

(03:57):
They lived above forty percent.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
So right, and it's such a good point that you,
Thomas listen, thank you as always, really appreciate your input.
Thomas Cogland, the Herald's political editor. For more from Hither
Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News Talks it B
from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.