Establishing such a broad mandate for the central bank ran against the conventional wisdom of the time, which was that central banking was about just currency and banking.
Indeed, in his book on the history of the Reserve Bank, Boris Schedvin was moved to write: ‘This bold declaration of responsibility was a landmark in the history of central banking.’ [2] It was a landmark in the sense that the Australian Parliament recognised that central banking was not only about money and finance, but it was also about jobs and the welfare of our society.