Question: How Can RBNZ's Board Chair Make the Best Non-Political Monetary Decisions when he's at the same time begging Finance Minister Willis for a new Medical School at Waikato?

Its a tense time at the Reserve Bank. It currently has an Acting, or Temporary, or Stand-In, or Stand-Up, or On Probation, or Interim, Governor ever since the Former Governor walked off in a huff. Finance Minister Willis and Reserve Bank Chair of the Board, Neil Quigley, who is also Vice Chancellor of Waikato University, are discussing monetary & financial regulation matters which put potentially billions of dollars of Big Monopoly Private Bank profits and bonuses at stake. This week, Willis & Quigley together announced there would be a Review of the Capital Requirements that the retail banks must adhere to. The Finance Minister was the driver behind that announcement, which came about from lobbying by the Big Banks.

So the question is - what is to stop Finance Minister Willis Making Offers to the Reserve Bank Board Chair that he cannot refuse? Since he is at the very same time begging the Coalition Government to be granted a new Medical School at Waikato, which will come at a cost to the public purse of up to half a billion dollars. Should the Reserve Bank Chair not go along with Willis' demands for reviews of bank regulations leading up to their potential abandonment, she can retaliate by scuttling his Medical School. Is there not a conflict of interest that makes Mount Everest look like a mole hill? We also have an Acting Reserve Bank Governor who has just had a pay rise from about $500,000 (as a Deputy) to about $850,000. He is fully dependent on Willis for his on-going employment in that job. She's the one who must sign off whether he will become Temporary Governor for 6 more months, or go back to being a Deputy. And we have a Chair of the RBNZ Board who cannot say no to Willis for fear of losing his medical school. Both have a financial conflict of interest when it comes to making the best (politically independent) decisions in the name of protecting the nation's monetary & financial systems. Its unprecedented in NZ economic history.

Did I miss something, because the Finance Minister has put herself in a position that has, as we speak, destroyed the political independence of the Reserve Bank of NZ. Willis has already taken over the RBNZ on behalf of the Big Aussie Bank lobby. How can she pretend she's taking on monopoly power when she's stabbing Kiwis in the back by commandeering our hallowed State institutions, selling them out to Big Business? My view she's incapable of competently performing the job of Finance Minister & Minister of Economic Growth. The entire re-election of the Coalition is based on its ability to deliver in terms of better economic outcomes for Kiwis. She has proven she has no clue how to do so, other than "seek advice". She has no clue what she has gone and done to the RBNZ by creating conflicts of interest that expose her to claims of capturing the leadership of the Bank with threats of significant financial retribution should they not bend to her will.