Labour leader Chris Hipkins says Finance Minister Nicola Willis is “donkey deep” in the Reserve Bank’s leadership turmoil that led to chairperson Neil Quigley’s resignation.
The central bank has been besieged for months since former governor Adrian Orr abruptly resigned in March for what was then termed a “personal decision”.
Quigley’s resignation late on Friday afternoon came after the Ombudsman forced the institution to release more information about the circumstances around the departure.
The former chairperson has been repeatedly accused of mischaracterising the reasons behind why Orr, who had been governor since 2018, left years before the end of his term.
Speaking to Breakfast today, Hipkins said Willis had been part of what he claimed was a “cover-up”.
“Nicola Willis is donkey deep in this. Neil Quigley was out in public, misleading New Zealanders … Nicola Willis knew about that and did nothing about it, until the Ombudsman came and said that they had to release that information,” he said.
“Then suddenly, Nicola Willis said that Neil Quigley had to go. If he had to go when the information was released, why didn’t he have to go when Nicola Willis knew about it all along, but the public didn’t?
“This is just a case of a cover-up by the Government, when they knew all along.”
The Labour leader added: “This matters for New Zealanders, because if they cannot trust their Minister of Finance to tell the truth and to make sure that the people who run major institutions like the Reserve Bank are telling the truth, what can they trust her on?”
Willis responded to the accusations of a cover-up, saying in a statement: “Mr Hipkins has a remarkable ability to confuse his prejudices for facts.”
‘Open as possible’
She had previously said she would have requested Quigley resign, had he not done so himself. In a statement to 1News yesterday, the Finance Minister said she’d been as open as possible about Orr’s departure since March.
“I called Neil Quigley on Friday because the Reserve Bank’s mishandling of information requests about the departure of former Governor Adrian Orr was starting to damage the bank’s reputation,” she said.
“I’m pleased Neil Quigley did the honourable thing and put the reputation of the Reserve Bank first. If he had not offered his resignation, I would have asked for it.
“I have been as open as I have been able to be about the events surrounding Mr Orr’s departure within the bounds of my role and the information I had.
“It’s important to note that I was not a party to the letter of concerns Mr Quigley wrote to Mr Orr on behalf of the bank’s board and was not in a position to comment on it.
“I am also on record as repeatedly encouraging the Reserve Bank to be more transparent about what took place. Unfortunately, the bank didn’t take that advice.”
Orr had served in the role of governor for seven years at the time of his resignation.
When the former governor’s departure was announced on March 5, little reason was provided beyond that it was his “personal decision”.
It later emerged that, before his official resignation, Orr had a major disagreement over the central bank’s funding arrangements with the Government. The bank’s board also sent the then-governor a letter of “concerns”, which it later withdrew when he resigned.
In a statement, reportedly sent three hours before Quigley’s resignation, a Reserve Bank spokesperson defended the then-chairperson’s March comments, The Post reported.
“The allegation that the chair made misleading statements is based on ongoing conjecture and speculation by commentators, who repeatedly misquote the chair as saying Adrian Orr’s resignation was a ‘personal matter’ or for ‘personal reasons’, while reading a specific meaning into those phrases that was clearly not the chair’s intended meaning,“ the spokesperson said, according to The Post.