Treasurer hits back at Paul Keating's attack on the RBA

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has hit back at controversial comments made by former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating over decisions made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Keating accused the RBA of not doing enough to shoulder the economic load caused by the COVID-19, saying “as history has shown, when a real crisis is upon us the RBA is invariably late to the party".

“It has to be remembered; these are the high priests of the incremental. Making absolutely certain that not a bank toe will be put across the line of central bank orthodoxy," he said.

However, Mr Frydenberg said “this was an extraordinary unnecessary attack from Paul Keating”.

“The Reserve Bank and its independence has come a long way since Paul Keating famously said, ‘he had them in the back pocket and they did what he said’,” the treasurer told Sky News.

“The reality is the government is in charge of fiscal policy and the Reserve Bank is in charge of monetary policy.

“We value the independence of the Reserve Bank,” he said.

Treasurer Frydenberg also spruiked upcoming fiscal reforms which he said would save “thousands of businesses”.

“We put in place some temporary relief for them with some changes around the insolvency laws and lifting the threshold for which there could be a statutory demand against them”.

“What we’re doing now is putting in place a permanent change to build more flexibility into the system and to create more dynamism across the economy."

Видео Treasurer hits back at Paul Keating's attack on the RBA канала Sky News Australia