Kerre Woodham: It's hard to find anyone sorry Adrian Orr's gone

Well, the announcement yesterday was on a par with John Key’s resignation. The Reserve Bank Governor, Adrian Orr, pulled the plug on his career yesterday with no real explanation as to why – although it's no secret that there is friction between the Governor and the Finance Minister. You know, I know and certainly Adrian Orr knows that if she could have sacked him, she would, rather than inherit him with his five-year term as given to him by the former Labour government.  

Thomas Coughlan has written an excellent piece in the New Zealand Herald on the tension between Adrian Orr and Nicola Willis. He says while Willis observed the conventions of respecting the independence between the Beehive and the Bank, under questioning on Wednesday, she referred back to comments she made as the opposition finance spokeswoman when she was unmuzzled by ministerial warrant. When you're in opposition, you can say pretty much anything, you can criticise anybody you like. Once you become a minister, there are conventions to observe. So when she was asked questions about Adrian's resignation yesterday, she said, “I refer you back to earlier times when I could say what I liked”. And the comments she made back then were critical in the extreme of Adrian Orr’s handling of the economy.  

Speaking of critical, if this is not the most withering, excoriating, damning assessment of a professional performance, I do not know what is. Former Reserve Bank senior staffer Geof Mortlock shared his thoughts on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning: 

“I was thinking that going through all of the Governor’s since 1934, I would rank him as the worst in terms of competence – based really on the monetary policy results. You look at the inflation burst. Now some of that was external, but some of it was definitely a function of monetary policy actions. He's left taxpayers with over $10 billion of debt that could have gone into the public health system and other such things. He's nearly doubled the staff numbers of the Reserve Bank, and he's jacked up bank capital ratios to levels that I think are going to make it more difficult for the economy to actually start growing again.” 

Yikes. I heard that on the way into work this morning and let out a little nervous giggle-squeak in the car. I felt like I was back at school listening to a tongue lashing from Sister Clare, thinking, I'm glad it's not me, glad it's not me. ‘I've gone to 1934 and without a doubt, he is the worst in terms of competence.’  

There's been no explanation as to why Orr has resigned. It fits, I suppose, with his maverick nature that he'd just push off and stick two fingers to his colleagues and his staffers and indeed, the New Zealand public. The worst thing about the mess that's been left behind is that people are not criticising him with the benefit of hindsight. Even as he was making the decisions at the time, you might recall we had people ringing in saying this is going to cost us, it's too much, he's going too hard. There were people ringing in almost immediately saying we're going to pay for this and we're going to be paying for a very long time. There's going to be hell to pay along with $10 billion. And they were right. And they were calling it at the time.  

As a result of decisions made by Adrian Orr, and let's not forget: Grant Robertson. They were yoked together in tandem making those decisions, and a lot of Kiwis suffered. Interest rate increases in response to post pandemic inflation pushed the country into a recession and unemployment increased sharply - the words of Paul Bloxham from the HSBC who talked about the rock star economy a million years ago, when New Zealand used to have a good economy. He said, across the developed world HSBC’s estimates suggest New Zealand's economy had the largest contraction in GDP in 2024 as a result of those decisions. And it's the real peop

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Mornings podcast from News
Talks head b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well. The announcement yesterday was on a par with John
Key's resignation. The Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Or pulled the
plug on his career yesterday with no real explanation as
to why. Although it's no secret that there is friction
between the governor and the finance minister. You know, I know,

(00:32):
and certainly Adrian Orr knows that if she could have
sacked him, she would rather than inherit him with his
five year term as given to him by the former
Labor government. Thomas Coglin has written an excellent piece in
the New Zealand Herald on the tension between Adrian Or
and Nikola Willis. He says, well Willis observed the conventions

(00:53):
of respecting the independence between the beehive and the bank.
Under questioning on Wednesdays, she referred back to comments she
made as the opposition finance spokeswoman. She was unmuzzled by
ministerial warrant. When you're in opposition you can say pretty
much anything. You can criticize anybody you like. Once you

(01:14):
become a minister, there are conventions to observe. So when
she was asked questions about Adrianaal's resignation yesterday, she said,
I refer you back to earlier times when I could
say what I liked, and the comments she made back
then were critical in the extreme of Adrianaal's handling of
the economy. Speaking of critical, If this is not the

(01:40):
most withering, excoriating, damning assessment of a professional performance, I
do not know what is. Have a listened to former
Reserve Bank senior staffer Jeff Mortlock on the Mike Hostking
Breakfast this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I was thinking that going through all of the governors
since nineteen thirty four, I would rank him as the
worst in terms of competence, based really on the monetary
policy results. You look at the inflation burst, and some

(02:17):
of that was external, but some of it was definitely
a function of monetary policy actions. He's left taxpayers with
over ten billion dollars of debt that could have gone
into the public health system and other such things. He's
nearly doubled the staff numbers of the Reserve Bank, and

(02:42):
he's jacked up bank capital ratios, two levels that I
think are going to make it more difficult for the
economy to actually start growing again.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yikes. It was former Reserve Bank senior staff and Jeff
Mortlock on the microsking breakfast. I heard that on the
way into work this morning and let out a little
nervous gig squeak in the car. Felt like I was
back at school listening to a tongue lashing from sister Clear, thinking, Oh,
I'm glad it's not me. Glad it's not me. I've
gone back to nineteen thirty four, and without a doubt,

(03:20):
he is the worst in terms of competence. Ah. Anyway,
there's been no explanation as to why war has resigned.
It fits I suppose, with his maverick nature that I
just push off and stick two fingers to his colleagues
and his staff as an indeed, the New Zealand public.
The worst thing about the mess that's been left behind

(03:43):
is that people are not criticizing him with the benefit
of hindsight, even as he was making the decisions at
the time. You might recall we had people ringing into
this show saying this is going to cost us, it's
too much, he's going too hard. I you know, there
were people ringing in almost immediately saying we're going to

(04:06):
pay for this, and we're going to be paying for
a very long time. There's going to be hell to
bay along with ten billion dollars. And they were right,
and they were calling it at the time. As a
result of decisions made by Adrianaor and let's not forget
Grant Robertson, they were yoked together in tandem making those decisions.

(04:32):
A lot of key we suffered interest rate increases in
response to post pandemic inflation, pushed the country into a recession,
and unemployment increased sharply. These are the words of Paul
Bloxham from the HSBC, who talked about the rockstar economy

(04:52):
a million years ago when New Zealand used to have
a good economy, he said, across the developed world, HSBC's
estimates suggest New Zealand's economy had the largest contraction in
GDP and twenty twenty four as a result of those decisions.
And it's the real people with families and jobs and

(05:15):
bills to pay that suffered as a result of the
poor decision making from the Reserve Bank governor. It's hard
to find anyone who's sorry that Adrianora is gone.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
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