(16 September 2011 – Australia) Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said from Canberra this week that next year The Reserve Bank (RBA) would lose its sole power to set compensation for its board and executives.The RBA now pays Mr Stevens more than Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet combined.
The salaries at the RBA will be fixed within benchmarks that exist in the Remuneration Tribunal, a body that decides how much politicians and civil servants earn, Mr Swan said.
The independent authority determines, reports on or provides advice about pay, including allowances and entitlements for federal lawmakers, judicial and non-judicial offices of federal courts and tribunals.
“I’ve put in place a set of arrangements that mean that future decisions taken about those salaries will be in the context of other salaries paid to comparable people in the public sector,” Mr Swan said.
“I have taken that action so that when the board takes its decision, it takes its decision within a framework set by government.”
The move is a culmination of months of debate over central bank salaries, with lawmakers including Queensland independent Bob Katter saying RBA governor Glenn Stevens’s pay increase during the global financial crisis was “outrageous.”
Mr Swan wasn’t told until almost a year after the central bank chief got a A$234,000 raise in October 2008.