Speech archive
Central bank speeches compiled from the BIS archive. Speech texts, summaries and the hawk/dove score are produced automatically every day; the newest entries may stay unscored until the next run.
- RBA22 September 2026·Michele Bullock+6.0 (hawkish)
Opening statement - House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics
In her opening statement to the House of Representatives Economics Committee, Bullock said the RBA has raised the policy rate by a total of 75 basis points this year and that inflation is running at around 3.5 percent, above target. She said the Middle East conflict, the AI boom and climate events have increased global cost pressures and that upside inflation risks have begun to materialise. She stressed that a stronger policy response may be needed if inflation becomes embedded in price- and wage-setting, and that the key question at the next meeting will be whether the tightening so far is sufficient. While acknowledging the softening housing market as a downside risk, she said bringing inflation down is imperative; the rest of the statement covered payment system reforms and cash distribution.
- RBA17 August 2026·Michele Bullockno policy signal
Monetary policy in an era of shocks
Bullock says the defining feature of recent years has been supply shocks becoming more frequent and more powerful: first the pandemic, then the energy price spike triggered by the war in Ukraine, and now the Middle East conflict, severe weather events and ongoing trade tensions. She notes that the outlook can change quickly and that new uncertainties can emerge as old risks fade. She says she will compare the impact of these developments on Australia with the oil shocks of the 1970s, and that while the world has become more shock-prone, the economy is more resilient than in the past, thanks in part to central banks' credible inflation targets. (BIS publishes only the introductory section of this speech.)
- RBA31 July 2026·Sarah Hunterno policy signal
Understanding supply shocks and their implications for monetary policy
Recalling the RBA's mandate of 2-3 percent inflation on average over the medium term and sustainable full employment, Hunter begins to explain how supply shocks should be read from a monetary policy perspective. She says the many forces affecting the economy's productive capacity, aggregate demand and costs need to be assessed together. She presents a simplified framework that combines both sides of the mandate in a single diagram: inflation on the vertical axis and the labour market's position between spare capacity and excess tightness on the horizontal axis. (BIS publishes only the introductory section of this speech; the full text is in the PDF.)