Treasury Laws Amendment (Reserve Bank Reforms) Bill 2023

The majority voted in favour of a motion "that the bill be agreed to." This means that the bill has passed in the House of Representatives and will now be sent to the Senate for their consideration.

What does this bill do?

According to the bills digest (which is a document prepared by the parliamentary library):

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Reserve Bank Reforms) Bill 2023 (the Bill) amends the Reserve Bank Act 1959 to improve the governance of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) by establishing a new Governance Board and a new Monetary Policy Board. The amendments are part of the Government’s response to the recommendations of the Review of the Reserve Bank entitled: An RBA fit for the future.

The functions of the Governance Board are, amongst other things:

• to oversee, and determine policies for, the management and organisational affairs of the RBA

• to determine the policies of the RBA for the performance of the RBA’s functions in relation to delivering banking services to the Commonwealth and the issuing, re-issuing and cancelling Australian notes

• to determine the policies of the RBA in relation to any matter not covered by the functions of the Monetary Policy Board or the Payments System Board.

The role of the Monetary Policy Board is to determine the monetary policy of the RBA in a way that, in the Board’s opinion, best contributes to price stability and the maintenance of full employment in Australia.

The functions of the existing Payments System Board are updated so that they are expressed in similar terms to those of the Governance Board and the Monetary Policy Board.

The Bill has been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 21 March 2024.