glenn stevens : brief history of the reserve bank of australia address by mr glenn stevens, governor of the reserve bank of australia, to the reserve bank of australia ’ s 50th anniversary gala dinner, sydney, 8 february 2010. * * * treasurer, shadow treasurer, former prime ministers, former treasurers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, welcome. i welcome former reserve bank governors bob johnston, bernie fraser and ian macfarlane ; former deputy governors ; and current and past members of the reserve bank board and the payments system board. i welcome also the governors, deputy governors and other representatives of 30 central banks from the asia - pacific region and around the world ; our colleagues from the bank for international settlements ; and past and present friends and colleagues from the public and private sectors. it is a very great pleasure indeed to welcome you all to sydney and to this occasion. fifty years ago, the reserve bank of australia commenced operations as australia ’ s central bank. that occasion, though, was the end of a long journey. the history of the rba actually began much earlier. not many people realise that the rba is, by a different name, in fact the entity that opened its doors for business in melbourne on 15 july 1912, as the commonwealth bank of australia. conceived as a publicly owned commercial bank that would compete with the private banks, but act in a more stable fashion, the commonwealth bank quickly became a significant force in the banking landscape. the story of how central banking evolved in australia in the 20th century is told in the monograph prepared specially for this occasion by professor selwyn cornish of the australian national university. the early part of the story is bound up with the history of the young federation, itself dating only from 1901. at that time, australia had no central bank. notes issued by private banks circulated, and reserve balances were held in sterling accounts in london. the financial system serving the australian colonies had been notoriously unstable during the 1890s. after a speculative property boom rivalling anything we have seen in recent times, the ensuing collapse saw more than half of the deposit - taking institutions close their doors. with federation, the new federal parliament gained constitutional power over currency and banking matters. the australian labor party ’ s platform included a pledge to establish a “ commonwealth bank ” to be “ a bank of issue, deposit, exchange and reserve ”. when the alp won office in 1910, the government duly brought forward a bill to establish the new bank. indeed, prime

glenn stevens : after the boom address by mr glenn stevens, governor of the reserve bank of australia, to an australiaisrael chamber of commerce ( wa ) corporate breakfast, perth, 2 december 2015. * * * it is very good to be back in perth. as you know, the reserve bank board held its meeting here yesterday. we decided to leave the cash rate at 2 per cent. the reasoning was given with the decision, and so i don't propose to discuss that. instead i want to reflect on the nature of the adjustments going on in the economy, and in which western australia is very important. it is four years since the board last met here. the previous occasion was in september 2011. i don't need to tell you that quite a lot has changed in the intervening period. at that time, the price of a tonne of iron ore was about us $ 170. a tonne of hard coking coal was bringing in about us $ 300. these were among the prices that saw australia's terms of trade soar to a level some 75 per cent above their average for the preceding century. few countries have seen such a windfall. these extraordinary prices had already, by that time, triggered a massive investment program, which was lifting capacity. four years ago, australia was shipping about a million tonnes of iron ore each day, which was already double the rate of 2004. a bit under a million tonnes of coal left our shores daily. by 2011, capital spending by the resources sector had already roughly trebled since 2005. it would peak the following year after rising by a further 50 per cent. the results of that investment have come on stream, or soon will. today, australia ships around 2 million tonnes of iron ore and 1 million tonnes of coal per day. the investment was not just in iron ore and coal. on forecasts of strong demand from asia – not just china but korea and japan as well – massive investments are under way in gas. lng exports have begun from some of the queensland projects and are expected to increase strongly over the coming years. as the wa projects come on line in the next few years, australia's total lng production capacity will reach over 80 million tonnes per year. this compares with a production capacity of around 10 million tonnes a decade ago. i should note in passing here that i have felt that we have been given a pretty good steer on the magnitude of the investment build - up and the early stages