The decision has rightly been regarded as one of the most important ever taken by an Australian Government in the field of economic policy, for a number of reasons. Most important from the perspective of monetary policy, the system for control over the amount of settlement funds in the system became fully effective for the first time.
If the Reserve Bank wanted to tighten financial conditions, by taking funds out of the system, the private sector could no longer immediately offset that by getting those funds back by selling foreign exchange to the Reserve Bank: we were no longer obliged to buy or sell foreign exchange at a given price.