The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced the appointment of Sally Cray to the newly created role of chief communications officer following the establishment of a dedicated communications department.
In this role, Ms Cray will spearhead the new department, which is responsible for all aspects of the RBA’s external and internal communications, including its work to deliver the bank’s economics education program.
According to the central bank, it will also serve to provide strategic communications advice to the governor and the boards of the Reserve Bank.
Ms Cray brings 20 years of experience spanning government, media and financial services to the role, a decade of which was committed to various advisory positions within the Australian government.
Notably, she served as principal private secretary to the Prime Minister between 2015 and 2018.
Before this, Ms Cray had a two-year stint as head of corporate communications at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and most recently served as the director of boutique strategic advisory and communications agency Athena Advisory.
She will commence in her new capacity on 4 December.
According to the central bank, Ms Cray’s appointment, and the newly created department, reflects its commitment to implementing the recently released RBA review, with the government agreeing in principle with all of the review’s 51 recommendations in April this year.
The announcement comes after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said earlier this month that he would introduce legislation to implement the review of the RBA during the final week of November.
Dr Chalmers explained that the introduction of the review legislation follows a long period of consultation with the RBA, the opposition, and other stakeholders.
“There’s been, I think, a really welcome public debate about the recommendations of the review that I released early in April. That’s been a good thing, and so we’ve taken into consideration all of that feedback, all of that consultation and collaboration,” he said.
“What people can expect to see in the RBA review legislation is keeping faith with the recommendations of the review but there have been a couple of instances where after that consultation and collaboration, we think we’ve got a better way to land the spirit of the review.”
Speaking with ABC’s Insiders, the Treasurer also confirmed that he intends to announce the new deputy governor of the RBA before the central bank’s next meeting on 5 December.
While noting that candidates for the role have been narrowed down to a “quite short” list, Dr Chalmers indicated that more due diligence is still required.
“I want to make sure that I take it to the cabinet colleagues in the course of the next month, but we’re choosing between internal and external, Australian and overseas,” he said.
