Thursday, September 15, 2011

Glen Stevens and the Reserve Bank of Australia




Treasurer Wayne Swan wasn't happy when he found out that the RBA decided to give their Governor, Glen Stevens a $234,000 pay rise. So he took the power away from them - from now on, they no longer have the power to independently set salaries of their governors, board members and top executives. After the pay rise, Mr Stevens annual package is $1.05 million, which is almost triple that of the Prime Minister.






The Remuneration Tribunal who sets salaries for top public servants, judges and the chairmen of the ACCC and ASIC will take over control of the RBA's salaries. Mr Swan said "I have put into place a set of arrangements that will mean future decisions taken about those salaries will be in the context of other salaries paid to comparable people in the public sector."

As usual, there are two sides of the story. One side says that Mr Stevens' salary is warranted because he did a great job steering us clear of a recession in the GFC. The other side says that his salary is obscene and way out of line with community expectations.






Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank is spending millions on renovations to their headquarters in Sydney and Governor Stevens has been boasting about how they paid $18,000 for his custom-made Anton Gerner timber desk.


I wonder if Mr Stevens realizes just how much he is hated, sitting up there in his ivory tower pontificating about our future, while we struggle to make ends meet. This man is completely out of touch with what's really going on in our economy and should be replaced at the first opportunity.



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