Published 12:24 PM, 29 Mar 2011 Last update 10:01 AM, 30 Mar 2011
It is difficult to criticise the two new appointments to the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Catherine Tanna and John Edwards bring skills and experiences to the board that are appropriate to the times.
Donald McGauchie, the uncompromising former chairman of Telstra, would never have expected to be reappointed, given his confrontations with the Rudd Government over telecommunications issues.
Warwick McKibbin while, like McGauchie, having served a decade on the board, had a lot of support for an extension of his term. McKibbin is a highly respected economist with an international reputation. After criticising a number of the government?s key policies, however, another term was always unlikely.
In Edwards, a former journalist, economic adviser to Paul Keating and long time chief economist for HSBC in Australia who has been executive director of economic planning and development for the Bahrain Economic Development board, Wayne Swan has replaced an academic economist with a market economist.
Catherine Tanna, an executive vice-president of BG Group and managing director of its Australian operations ? the giant coal seam gas-fed export LNG export project in Queensland ? brings considerable experience in the energy sector having previously held senior positions with Shell and BP.
With the economy being driven by a resources boom in which energy, particularly gas, will play an increasingly significant role and where the key customers are in Asia, Edwards and Tanna will bring very relevant experience and understanding to bear.
The appointments leave Jillian Broadbent (appointed in 1998) as the longest serving RBA non-executive. Her term doesn?t expire until 2013. Tanna's appointment will be welcome by those agitating for a greater presence for women on boards.
The next director whose term expires is Bluescope Steel?s chairman, Graeme Kraehe, whose directorship will be either extended or terminated in February next year. Kraehe was appointed to the board in 2007, making him, with former Woodside CEO John Akehurst, the most recent of the appointments before today.
Given his recent stringent criticism of the government?s proposed carbon tax, his dire warnings for the future of steel industry and his description of the government?s consultation process as a "sham", the probability that this government would reappoint him would have to be considered low.
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