The chairman of the Reserve Bank apologised to a Treasury staff member for Adrian Orr’s behaviour in a meeting two weeks before his sudden resignation as Governor.
“I am sorry Adrian lost his cool with you this afternoon. Your question was not surprising and [he] should have been able to give you a more dispassionate answer,” Neil Quigley told the principal Treasury adviser in an email on February 20.
The adviser responded: “Thanks, Neil. I appreciate your email. I also realise this is a difficult process and emotions can run high. We really appreciate your open communication given the difficulties of this scenario.”
Negotiations were under way at the time over the amount of funding the Government would give the Reserve Bank over the next five years.
The Reserve Bank initially pitched for $1 billion over five years. The Government said no. The Reserve Bank board was happy to back down, but Orr wasn’t.
The Reserve Bank said the disagreement between Orr and the board led to his resignation, frantically announced the day before the bank hosted an international conference.
The Treasury released the email after the Herald asked it about an allegation that Orr swore and lost his cool in a meeting with Treasury staff and then with Finance Minister Nicola Willis on February 24.
The anonymous source, who made a raft of allegations to former Reserve Bank manager and blogger Michael Reddell, suggested there was an element of Orr being pushed to resign.
If true, this would be a different narrative to that the public has been told.
Willis didn’t provide a clear answer when asked if all the appropriate information about Orr’s resignation had been released.
“There have been times when, via my office, we have asked them [the Reserve Bank] whether they are providing the fulsome disclosure that we would expect,” she said.
“They have taken this - as is their independent right - to do their own legal advice on that, and they have made their own decisions.”
Willis said she had confidence in Quigley, but conveyed her “disappointment” to the Reserve Bank board over the way the issue had been handled during a pre-scheduled meeting on Thursday morning.
Quigley has said little about the circumstances around Orr’s resignation, saying it was a “personal decision”.
Asked by Newstalk ZB on Tuesday night about the allegation that Orr swore in a meeting with Treasury staff, Quigley said, “I can’t comment on that. That’s a matter of privacy that I don’t think I should discuss.”
He also declined to comment on a claim that he allegedly sent Orr a “statement of concerns”, detailing a raft of issues spanning several years, the day the Reserve Bank board met a week before Orr’s resignation.
Willis said she didn’t want to get involved in an employment matter between Orr and the Reserve Bank.
She said she hadn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement, but noted, “I’ve been conscious that my commentary could potentially give rise to legal or financial risk to the New Zealand taxpayer.”
When the Herald asked the Reserve Bank why it hadn’t released the email exchange between Quigley and the Treasury adviser further to requests made under the Official Information Act, it said its legal obligations were different to those of the Treasury.
It also noted the Ombudsman was considering a complaint over the way the Reserve Bank handled information requests around Orr’s departure.
Victoria University law professor Dean Knight said: “Privacy or confidentiality obligations under employment law or exit agreements are not absolute reasons for withholding information.
“They’re a factor against disclosure but not a veto. They must still be weighed against the public interest in disclosure.”
Documents released by Willis under the Official Information Act in April showed her adviser had briefed her on how to answer questions she might receive on whether Orr had raised his voice with her.
Asked on Tuesday whether Orr did so during the meeting they had on February 24, Willis said: “As I’ve said previously, not that I recall.”
Put to her that she surely did remember, she said Orr did not raise his voice.
Orr has declined multiple requests for comment.
Since leaving the Reserve Bank, he has become a member of the Cook Islands National Superannuation Fund board.
Jenée Tibshraeny is the Herald’s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.