She may have spent her entire working life in Sydney and now be Australia’s second most senior monetary policymaker, but UNE alumna Michele Bullock’s heart remains very much in the country.
Michele’s historic appointment to the position of Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia has made her the first woman to hold the post in its 62-year history. And what a challenging time in history it is, with unprecedented national debt levels and rising inflation, and financial markets and the media predicting interest rate rises in the latter half of the year.
As Deputy Chair of the Reserve Bank Board, Michele will certainly be actively engaged in such decision-making in the months ahead.
Just two days into her new role, Michele – a proud ‘country girl’ – reflected on her Bachelor of Economics (with Honours) studies at UNE, being a role model for other women, and the importance of regional development.
Tell us about your upbringing in Armidale and time at UNE.
I was born in Melbourne, but my family moved to Armidale when I was about nine, so I spent my formative years there. I went to Armidale High School and at the end of school I was accepted into medicine at the University of NSW. But I was only 17 and I wasn’t sure I was cut out for medicine. My dad (Ivan Droop) worked in administration and data processing at UNE, and he suggested I speak with a few people about the Economics course because I enjoyed that subject at school.
As a country girl, I found the idea of going to the big city quite daunting, so staying at home was a good option. I found Economics interesting; it was useful in day-to-day life and topical, and it had a quantitative element that suited me because I was quite good at maths. I didn’t have a focus on where it would lead me, but I thought perhaps the public service.
Even though my family lived in Armidale, I made a conscious effort to engage with university life. I affiliated with St Albert’s College and got involved in sport. I didn’t just stay home and hang out with my school friends.
There are lots of fond memories – of the people I met through my course and through college and sport. I loved playing intervarsity hockey and have very fond memories of the Ag Eco and Rural Science balls. From the academic side, I valued that the lecturers were very available and it was easy to talk to them.
I joined the RBA as an intern in my honours year.
You have spent your entire career at the RBA. What makes it such a satisfying workplace?
The public service aspect of it, that you are doing something for the Australian people.
The people who work here are really smart. It’s a great environment for inquiry and challenge, and there are lots of different things you can do here. I started in Economics and moved to Financial Markets, but I also spent time in the operational areas of note-printing, banking and payments. And I have also been involved in the payments policy side. It’s offered a great breadth of things for me contribute to and, underlying it all, is that it’s in the public interest, which works for me.
So you were literally given a licence to print money?
I chaired the company that prints money for a few years, so yes.
How does it feel to be taking on this new role of Deputy Governor?
It feels exciting. Whenever you take on a new role you look at your learning curve and think, ‘wow’, because there is a lot of learning to do. This position is effectively the chief operating officer of the Reserve Bank, so you need to be across a lot of areas. And I have to say it’s also quite humbling to be appointed to this position.
I wasn’t sure I would ever be in this position. I never thought that Guy Debelle, who was the deputy governor, would leave the Bank. That was the big surprise.
[Debelle was considered the man most likely to succeed RBA Governor Philip Lowe until his recent shock departure from the RBA to become a senior executive with Perth billionaire Twiggy Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries.]
It’s an historic appointment as the first woman Deputy Governor. Does it feel ground-breaking?
Yes, it does in a way. I am quite conscious that a lot of people will look at it that way, so I want to make sure that I do a good job and that I am conscious of the young women coming up around me. We have a wealth of talent in the Reserve Bank, male and female, but we are deliberately trying to raise the number of women in management. I am very conscious that I provide them with the realisation that they, too, can move up through the organisation. I do take that seriously.
What signal does the appointment of the first female Deputy Governor send to the business community?
I hadn’t really thought about that, but maybe it is demonstrating to them that the Reserve Bank is progressive and moving with the times and looking to make sure it has a diverse workforce, including diverse senior leadership.
This role brings together the breadth of your skills. Was this next step the one you always wanted to take?
I always wanted to make a good contribution and always felt, as I moved up through the organisation, that I was doing so. With my career, I have always taken the view that if opportunities present themselves, you should have a crack. I moved firstly to payments in 1998, which was a brand new area and I thought ‘why not?’. When I was asked if I was interested in moving to currency and note issue, an operational area out of the policy lane, I said ‘why not?’. When I was asked to come back to financial systems, again I thought ‘why not?’. For me, it has always been about just getting new experiences and enjoying what I’m doing, and part of that has been not being afraid to take a step somewhere different.
Do you have ambitions to become the Governor?
A number of people have asked me that. I have to say that I’m two days into this role and I’m focusing on this at the moment.
Your every word will now be much more seriously scrutinised …
I guess it will be. In other positions there wasn’t as much scrutiny but people certainly did read your words very carefully and try to look for things you were signalling. So yes, it’s a step up, but it has always been there for senior leaders in the Bank.
This is an historic time in Australian history, with households shouldering, record debt and underlying inflation. Does that make it an exciting or challenging time to now be in a position to address such things?
I think it’s both. We have a lot of very good people in this organisation. You are not doing it by yourself; everyone is working together to figure out what we think is the best way forward, but yes, it is a challenging time and quite an uncertain time.
What do you think you learnt at UNE that you perhaps might rely on even today in your working life?
Growing up in the country and going to UNE was a real leveller for me. There were country kids up there, some went to private schools in Sydney, a lot of them didn’t and went to public schools like me in country areas. It wasn’t about where you came from or who you were, it was about what you were contributing, like to the sporting teams you were playing in. It was a really welcoming environment. That’s what I try to bring to what I do. I want to be inclusive, welcoming and make a level playing field upon which everyone can contribute. And I think I bring that from my country upbringing.
You are a big fan of the regions and have said that you would like to see more regional growth. Where does that come from?
When I visit the regions and even go back to Armidale, I look at the regional towns and they have so much to offer everyone living there – they are inclusive, you know a lot of people. And the regions are very important to the Australian economy through the contributions they make to our exports. I love travelling up through the regions, and when I visit my parents in Queensland I will often drive up the New England Highway via Armidale. It feels good to me.
You seem proof that the regions can produce some incredible talent, too. Here you are the country’s second most senior monetary policymaker, who went to a public school and a regional university.
It’s a privilege and sometimes I do pinch myself. I have lived in the city for 35 years so I am a city person, and my children were both brought up in the city, but we have always encouraged them to look at the regions as places to go and my son now lives in Grafton and my daughter in Mackay. My job keeps me in the city, but I do love the country and the regions; it’s still within me.
