philip lowe : remarks at reserve bank board dinner remarks by mr philip lowe, governor of the reserve bank of australia, at the reserve bank of australia's board dinner, brisbane, 5 september 2017. * * * good evening. on behalf of the reserve bank board i would like to warmly welcome you all to this community dinner. thank you for your interest in the rba and for joining us this evening. as you are probably aware the reserve bank board had its monthly meeting here in brisbane today, at our offices on creek st. i would like to take the opportunity of this dinner to welcome mark barnaba to the reserve bank board. this was mark ’ s first board meeting and he brings a wealth of experience in the resources and banking sectors to the table. mark replaces john akehurst who retired from the board last week after a decade of public service in this role. over those 10 years, john made an outstanding contribution to our deliberations. it ’ s fair to say that he served through interesting times, perhaps a little too interesting : a global financial crisis, the biggest mining investment boom in over a century, and central banks worrying that inflation was too low, not too high. all that, in just 10 years. mark, i hope your time on the board is not quite as interesting! at our meeting today we had the usual review of the global and australian economic and financial data, as well as a thorough discussion of recent developments in queensland. we know that the queensland economy has gone through a difficult period following the wind - down of the mining investment boom, and that the pain has been concentrated in some regional communities. we are also watching the brisbane property market carefully, particularly the effect on prices of the large increase in the supply of new apartments. more broadly, a range of indicators, including employment and retail trade, suggest that there has been a recent improvement in economic conditions in queensland. the lower exchange rate is helping, particularly in the tourism, education and rural industries. an appreciating exchange rate would not be helpful from this perspective. you have probably heard that the board decided today to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1. 5 per cent. this is unlikely to have come as a surprise to many people ; the cash rate has been at 1. 5 per cent since august last year and financial market pricing suggests market participants expect it to remain there for some time yet. as usual, the reasons for the decision were released shortly after the meeting. for some time

third plenum. the one - child policy has been relaxed and the government has expanded funding for social security and health care. the value - added tax has been broadened and there has been some deregulation of interest rates. so there has been progress on a number of fronts. but, on the other hand, there is still some way to go to meet the goal of allowing market forces to play a decisive role in resource allocation. reform of state - owned enterprises has been slower than many had hoped for and the state, rather than market prices, still has a strong influence in allocating resources in parts of the economy. looking forward, the pace and nature of future reform in these areas are likely to be influenced by the outcomes of the 19th congress of the chinese communist party later this year. on one final matter, i would like to take this opportunity to remind you that our new $ 10 note will be issued in just a couple of weeks, on 20 september. the new note contains the same worldleading security features as the new $ 5 note that we issued last september, including the clear top - to - bottom window, and the tactile feature so that it can be recognised by vision - impaired members of our community. for me personally, the new $ 10 note will be a particularly special note, as it is the first note with my signature. we have printed a couple of hundred million of these notes, so it has been a busy time for john fraser and me recently! the new note will continue to feature mary gilmore and banjo paterson, two of australia ’ s most famous writers. both grew up in southern new south wales. indeed, mary gilmore spent time at schools in both cootamundra and wagga wagga, just as i did. both of these writers also have a connection to queensland. for many years, mary gilmore ’ s husband ran a farm near cloncurry in northern queensland. and of course, banjo paterson is said to have written the words to waltzing matilda during a trip to dagworth station near winton. we are proud to have these two great australian writers on our banknotes. again, thank you for your attendance tonight. i hope you enjoy your dinner and the conversation. 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches