How do we know that the Finance Minister has shredded the reputation of the RBNZ? By the fact the headlines today say that the Opposition is "appalled" by Orr's reappointment. Yes, the leaders of both the National & ACT parties are bitterly opposed.
What that means is that the RBNZ has officially become an instrument of politics - the Kiwi right now view it as a leftist institution.
Even in the US, often regarded as strongly divided on partisan lines, former Federal Reserve Chairs, for example like Alan Greenspan, were appointed by a Republican Administration and had their contracts renewed by a subsequent Democrat administration. The point was to strengthen the institution's respect, credibility, transparency and integrity. It was a signal that there are more important things in terms of the public interest than unpleasant political disagreements based on personal ideology.
Not any more in this country. Whether it be the Productivity Commission or now the RBNZ, the Finance Minister has eroded the integrity of our best public institutions. He has turned them into petty, leftist versus rightist, bun fights, where you stand or fall on your political opinions, not on the objective quality of the work you do.
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