Reserve Bank of Australia Annual Report – 1992 Community Relations

Information Services

The Bank publicises its policies and operations in a variety of ways. The monthly Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin presents economic and financial data, as well as regular quarterly reports on financial markets and the economy, and articles on topical subjects. The Bulletin's database became available in computer-readable form for use on microcomputers from October 1991. Senior officers speak publicly on a regular basis to explain the Bank's monetary and banking policies, and press statements are issued on a wide range of issues. Presentations are also made to universities, economics teachers' associations and to groups of senior school students and, as part of its community relations activities, the Bank arranges educational visits to its premises for small groups of school students and for adults involved in job training courses.

In June 1991, the Bank hosted a conference in Sydney on the Deregulation of Financial Intermediaries; the proceedings were published in November. Each year, the Bank publishes a number of Research Discussion Papers. Through its Economic and Financial Research Fund, the Bank has provided some modest support for university research projects during the past year.

International Relations

Close contacts have been developed and maintained with other central banks and monetary authorities, particularly in the South East Asian and Pacific region.

In November 1991, the Bank hosted a Pacific Region Foreign Exchange Reserves Management Conference. In December it again hosted the annual meeting of South Pacific Central Bank Governors at which general economic and banking issues relevant to regional countries were discussed; these meetings also provide a forum for coordinating training assistance programs for staff of central banks in the region.

The Governor and Deputy Governor attended regular meetings with Governors of other member central banks of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basle during the year. The Governor also attended a meeting of the SEANZA (South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia) Council of Central Bank Governors in Tokyo in November 1991. Senior Bank staff participated in Australian delegations to various meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Bank representatives also attended the Executive Meeting of East Asia and Pacific Central Banks, hosted by the Bank of Japan, and the half-yearly Conferences of Economists organised by the BIS.

The moves towards more market orientated economies, and consequential reform of banking and payments systems, in a number of Asian and Eastern European countries, have generated numerous requests for assistance with training and other programs. During the past year, the Bank has responded, through training attachments to our Head Office, to requests from central banks in Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Tonga, Vietnam and Western Samoa. In addition, the Bank has made specialist staff available for short-term attachments as participants in IMF technical assistance missions to Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

Bank staff also have undertaken secondments with central banks in other countries (England, Fiji, Kenya and Zambia), while officials from the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco have been seconded to the Bank during the past year. Senior staff from the Bank assisted with the South Pacific Central Banking Seminar, held in Port Moresby in October/November 1991, and with a seminar organised by the People's Bank of China in June 1992.

The Bank established a scholarship to be awarded to staff of the Bank of Papua New Guinea to undertake post-graduate studies in Australia; the first scholarship was awarded to an officer undertaking a Masters course at Macquarie University in 1992.

Freedom of Information Act

Section 8 Statement: The Reserve Bank is an exempt agency under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 in respect of documents concerning banking operations (including individual open market operations and foreign exchange dealings) and exchange control matters.

Facilities for Access and FOI Procedures: Inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act, including requests for access to documents, should be directed to the Secretary, Head Office, or to the Managers of branches (General Manager at Note Printing Australia). Applications should be accompanied by the application fee (currently $30). Facilities to inspect documents to which access has been granted are available in the Bank's branches.

Organisation and Functions: The Reserve Bank of Australia is Australia's central bank. It was established by Commonwealth legislation in 1911. Its functions, powers and responsibilities are specified in the Reserve Bank Act 1959, the Banking Act 1959, the Financial Corporations Act 1974 and the Regulations under those Acts. Additional information is contained in the booklet Reserve Bank of Australia: Functions and Operations, available at all Reserve Bank branches.

Categories of Documents: Categories of documents available to the public are detailed in Functions and Operations. A list of publications, including speeches, articles, occasional papers, information booklets, conference volumes, regular press releases and other publications is published from time to time in the Bank's monthly Bulletin. Other documents held by the Bank take the form of working notes and files on policy and operational matters, statistical data, personnel, premises and general administration.

Administration: Twenty requests for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act were received in 1991/92, compared with 22 in the previous year. No request for internal review of a decision was received. Seventeen of the requests received in 1991/92 were from staff or former staff.

Sixteen requests were granted in full. Four were refused on the grounds that the documents either did not exist, could not be located or were exempt under the Act. None was granted in part; the other documents to which access was requested were exempt under the Act.

The cost to the Bank of administering the Act in 1991/92 is estimated to have been approximately $6,400, compared with approximately $23,000 in the previous year.