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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at b.

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Speaker 2: Whether it's the government, like international organizations, you know, like

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Speaker 2: the UN and that kind of thing, higher education so universities,

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Speaker 2: or well even the media. Actually, one of the defining

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Speaker 2: dynamics of this social media age is the deteriorating trust

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Speaker 2: in public institutions. And it's kind of extraordinary when you

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Speaker 2: think about it. At a time when humans are on

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Speaker 2: the whole, wealthier, healthier, more dominant than at any other

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Speaker 2: time in our species history, we are also more distrustful

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Speaker 2: of the institutions that are supposed to serve us. So look,

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Speaker 2: Saturday Mornings is usually a monetary policy free zoned. For

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Speaker 2: the most part, we are ninety nine point ninety seven

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Speaker 2: percent monetary policy free and I promise to mostly keep

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Speaker 2: it that way for an hour. But I gotta say

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Speaker 2: it was pretty remarkable at the close of play last

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Speaker 2: night to see an announcement from the Finance Minister about

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Speaker 2: the Chair of the Reserve Bank, Neil Quiggley, had resigned

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Speaker 2: effective immediately, following further revelations about his handling of the

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Speaker 2: former Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Or's departure. Nikola Willis then

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Speaker 2: confirmed to news Talks he'd be that if Quiggly hadn't

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Speaker 2: offered his resignation, she would have asked for it. Now, look,

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Speaker 2: I do not expect anyone to follow all of the

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Speaker 2: Reserve Bank dramas. But the long and short of it

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Speaker 2: is that the condensed version is that the former governor,

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Speaker 2: Adrian Or, got in a dispute with the government about

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Speaker 2: the bank's funding and it kind of turned into a

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Speaker 2: bit of a showdown of sorts, and the Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: Board raised concerns with him about his conduct, some of

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Speaker 2: which he disputed, and after taking leave for a couple

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Speaker 2: of days you remember this, Adrian Or ultimately resigned. But

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Speaker 2: instead of being absolutely transparent about the dispute and about

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Speaker 2: what had actually happened, the Reserve Bank chair Neil quickly

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Speaker 2: told media at the time that Adrian Or had resigned

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Speaker 2: for quote personal reasons. Ah, yes, the old personal reasons. Eh. Look,

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Speaker 2: if this was just some rando, then no harm, no foul.

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Speaker 2: But Adrian Or was the governor of the Reserve Bank,

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Speaker 2: one of the most powerful public servants in the country,

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Speaker 2: if not the most powerful public servants in the country.

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Speaker 2: His pen stroke the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee

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Speaker 2: can be the difference between like thousands or hundreds of

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Speaker 2: thousands of people losing their jobs or homes. Let me

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Speaker 2: just think about the decisions they made over the last

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Speaker 2: few years. Got all the decisions over COVID that contributed

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Speaker 2: to huge spike in inflation in this country. But then

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Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank has effectively admitted that it has deliberately

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Speaker 2: engineered a recession. I mean that committee and the decisions

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Speaker 2: of the Reserve Bank Governor directly impact the lives of

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Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of us. So, like

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Speaker 2: many journos, I didn't buy the personal reasons explanation, and

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Speaker 2: I just kind of felt like we all deserve to

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Speaker 2: have more detail about what had actually happened. After all,

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Speaker 2: this wasn't a private company. The Reserve Bank serves us.

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Speaker 2: And after Neil Quigley's explanation, after the Reserve Bank declined

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Speaker 2: for Adrian Or to be interviewed, I personally went to

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Speaker 2: the extreme length of sending Adrian Or a letter at

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Speaker 2: his home asking him to do an interview. Now, that

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Speaker 2: is something that I would usually never do. I would

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Speaker 2: usually never do something like that, but I just felt

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Speaker 2: so strongly the public deserved an explanation, and it's taken

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Speaker 2: until now and a ruling from the ombudsman for us

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Speaker 2: to actually get the full story. So look, I think

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Speaker 2: there are lessons in this for all of us who

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Speaker 2: work in job that purport to serve the public. And

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Speaker 2: even though my job was very different to that of

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Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank governor, I think about trust a lot,

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Speaker 2: and look, I get it. This is totally different to

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Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank. I'm not setting interest rates much much,

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Speaker 2: much lower stakes. But I had the chance to reflect

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Speaker 2: on my own work this week, and in the spirit

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Speaker 2: of introspection and openness, I tried to lean in. So

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Speaker 2: I was on this podcast. The podcast is called Recovering,

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Speaker 2: in which news storks zedb's Frank Ritchie asks journalists to

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Speaker 2: reflect on a story that they covered in the past.

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Speaker 2: And I didn't choose a story that I had absolutely nailed.

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Speaker 2: This wasn't a big award winner, right. Instead, I reflected

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Speaker 2: on my five years as TVNZ's US correspondent, and this

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Speaker 2: is going back a few years, but I reflected on

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Speaker 2: my surprise at the first election of Donald Trump back

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Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, and as I said on recovering the

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Speaker 2: fact that so many of us, not just in the

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Speaker 2: media but in society were so shocked by the results,

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Speaker 2: including Donald Trump. I'll remind you. I just think it

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Speaker 2: shows that I and the rest of the news media

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Speaker 2: covering that election had done a massively insufficient job of

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Speaker 2: reflecting the scale of the anger and the dissatisfaction with

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Speaker 2: the status quo in the US. I mean that election

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Speaker 2: changed the world, and ultimately I hope that reflecting on

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Speaker 2: my surprise at the result will make me more skeptical

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Speaker 2: of conventional wisdom and better at my job today. The

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Speaker 2: thing is humans are fallible a we all make mistakes,

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Speaker 2: we all do. But the Reserve Bank episode demonstrates that

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Speaker 2: the best thing a public institution can do to protect

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Speaker 2: its reputation is not try and protect its reputation. Just

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Speaker 2: admit when you got things wrong, Admit when things are

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Speaker 2: a bit awkward, Admit things that make you look bad.

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Speaker 2: Learn lessons the hard way. Convince the public that you

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Speaker 2: have nothing to hide by showing us you have nothing

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Speaker 2: to hide.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,