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H. C. Coombs | |
|---|---|
 Coombs at the Lapstone Conference in 1948 | |
| 1stGovernor of the Reserve Bank of Australia | |
| In office January 1960 – July 1968 | |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | J. G. Phillips |
| Secretary of theDepartment of Post-War Reconstruction | |
| In office 2 February 1943 – 31 December 1948 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Herbert Cole Coombs 24 February 1906 Kalamunda, Western Australia, Australia |
| Died | 29 October 1997(1997-10-29) (aged 91) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Alma mater | University of Western Australia(BA (Hons);MA) London School of Economics(PhD) |
| Profession | Economist |
Herbert Cole "Nugget" Coombs (24 February 1906 – 29 October 1997) was an Australian economist andpublic servant. He was the firstGovernor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, in which capacity he served from 1960 to 1968. He is noted for his contributions to the arts, environment, and Indigenous justice movement.
Herbert Cole "Nugget" Coombs was born on 24 February 1906 inKalamunda,Western Australia, one of six children of a country railway stationmaster and a well-read mother.[citation needed]
Coombs's political and economic views were formed by theGreat Depression, which hit Australia in 1929 and caused a complete economic collapse in a country totally dependent on commodity exports for its prosperity. As a student in Perth, he was a socialist, but while he was studying at theLondon School of Economics, he became converted to the economic views ofJohn Maynard Keynes. He spent the rest of his career pursuing Keynesian solutions to Australia's economic problems. He never sought public office nor joined a political party, but he sought to exercise political influence as an administrator and advisor.
He won a scholarship toPerth Modern School. After five years there, he worked as a pupil-teacher for a year before spending two years at the Teachers' College. He then spent two years teaching at country schools, during which he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in theUniversity of Western Australia (UWA), then the only free university in Australia. Transferring to a metropolitan school for the final two years, he graduated B.A. with first-class honours in economics and won a Hackett Studentship for overseas study. That was deferred for a year, enabling him to graduate M.A., also from UWA, and to marry fellow teacher Mary Alice ('Lallie') Ross at the end of 1931. As a student at UWA, Coombs was elected as the 1930 Sports Council president and subsequently the 1931 president of the Guild of Undergraduates. He then proceeded to theLondon School of Economics, where he studied underHarold Laski, one of the most influentialMarxists of the 20th century. In 1933, he was awarded a PhD for a thesis on central banking.
In 1934, he returned to a teaching position in Perth and combined it with part-time lecturing in economics at UWA.
In 1935, he became an economist at theCommonwealth Bank, then a state-owned bank that served as Australia's central bank. In 1939, he shifted to the Department of the Treasury inCanberra as a senior economist. He became known as a Keynesian rebel against theclassical economics theory that had dominated the Treasury, under the influence of theMelbourne University school of economists, led byL. F. Giblin andDouglas Copland.[1]
TheAustralian Labor Party underJohn Curtin came to power in 1941, and Coombs found himself in a political environment much more supportive of his views. Curtin appointed him to the Commonwealth Bank board in October 1941. In 1942, the Treasurer,Ben Chifley, appointed him Director of Rationing, and in 1943 made him Director-General of theDepartment of Post-war Reconstruction, a new ministry that Chifley held in addition to the Treasury. Coombs played a leading role in the preparation of theWhite Paper on Full Employment in Australia which, for the first time, committed the government to maintainingfull employment from the post-WWII years.
Chifley, a former train driver, had no training in economics and came to rely heavily on Coombs's advice. Coombs's closeness to Chifley and the greatly expanded role of government in the economy during World War II made him one of the most powerful public servants in Australian history. His influence further expanded when Chifley became prime minister in 1945.
In January 1949, Chifley appointed Coombs as governor of the Commonwealth Bank, the most important post in the regulation of the Australian economy. When theLiberal Party came to power in December of that year, however, Coombs's demise seemed likely, but the new prime minister,Robert Menzies, kept him on and soon came to trust his judgement. Menzies was a moderate Keynesian, and there were few policy differences between the two men, especially since Australia soon embarked on a long postwar boom, and hardly any tough economic decisions needed to be made.
In 1960, when theReserve Bank of Australia was created to take over the Commonwealth Bank's central banking functions, Coombs was appointed governor of the Reserve Bank. At the time, he paid tribute to SirLeslie Melville by advising the government and others that the best man for the job had been overlooked.[2][3]
He retired as a public servant in 1968.
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Coombs's most important post-retirement role was as a supporter of theAustralian Aboriginal people. In 1967, he became chairman of theCouncil for Aboriginal Affairs, set up by theHolt government in the wake ofthe referendum that gave the Commonwealth Parliament power to legislate specifically for the Aboriginal people.[citation needed] He was, however, disappointed that theGorton andMcMahon governments took up few of the Council's recommendations.[citation needed] In 1968, he supported theWuyul petition created byYolngu people of theGove Peninsula, to rename the new mining town thereNhulunbuy, which was successful. In a speech to the ABC, Coombs quoted words from a letter sent byRoy Marika to politicians and media, saying "as long as we have minds to think with, eyes to see with, surely there can be an effort on both sides to understand each other's language and customs", which was widely reported.[4]
He became a close advisor to the Labor leaderGough Whitlam in the years before Whitlam became prime minister in 1972, and he largely wrote Labor's policy on Aboriginal affairs, particularly the commitment toAboriginal land rights.[citation needed] In December 1972, as chair of theOffice of Aboriginal Affairs, Coombs received a delegation from theAboriginal Housing Committee, based inRedfern, Sydney, applying for a grant to improve housing for Aboriginal people in the area.[5] Their application for a grant was successful, enabling the AHC to commence purchasing houses which led to the creation of the Aboriginal-run housing project,The Block.[6]
Coombs continued to work following his retirement. He had already signalled his interest in the arts by becoming the first chairman of theAustralian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1954 (named in honour ofElizabeth II, not because it promotedElizabethan theatre). In 1967, he persuaded Prime MinisterHarold Holt to create the Australian Council for the Arts (the non-statutory predecessor to theAustralia Council) as a body for the public funding of the arts, and in 1968, he became its chairman.[7] He worked closely with Prime MinisterJohn Gorton to secure funding for anAustralian film industry. He also became chancellor of theAustralian National University (1968–1976),[8] which he had helped found in 1946. He delivered the 1970Buntine Oration, titled "Human Values – Education in the Changing Australian Society."[9]
In 1972, he wasThe Australian's inauguralAustralian of the Year, an award created in competition to the more widely recognised Victorian Australia Day Council's Australian of the Year.[10][11]
From 1972 to 1975, Coombs served as a consultant to Prime Minister Whitlam, but his influence was resented by other ministers. He found the experience of the first Labor government since 1949 disappointing. He disapproved of the events that led up to theLoans Affair of 1975 and the1975 Australian constitutional crisis, which led to the dismissal of Whitlam's government by theGovernor-General,Sir John Kerr. He advised Whitlam not to resort to unorthodox means of financing government operations when the Senate blocked supply, but Whitlam did so anyway. Although he regarded the dismissal as scandalous,[citation needed] his estrangement from Whitlam meant that he took little subsequent part in politics.
In 1974 Whitlam announced the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration, chaired by Coombs, which was tasked with examining the purpose, functions, organisation and management of Australian Government bodies and the structure and management of the Australian Public Service.[12][13] The commission reported in 1976 recommending greater autonomy for public servants' decisions. this included employment and finance decisions that had been controlled by central departments such as thePublic Service Board. Public servants would also be subject to performance reviews. The Liberal government ofMalcolm Fraser largely ignored the recommendations, focusing on reducing the size of the Public Service and introducing accountability mechanisms.[14]
In 1976, Coombs resigned all his posts and became a visiting fellow at theCentre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University, where he developed a new interest in environmental issues. However, Aboriginal affairs remained his greatest passion and, in 1979, he launched theAboriginal Treaty Committee, calling for a formal treaty between Australia and the Aboriginal people. The idea gained much public support but neither the Fraser government nor its successor,Bob Hawke's Labor government, took it up. From 1977 to 1979, Coombs was the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation.[15]
Coombs deplored the breakdown of the postwarKeynesian economic consensus, represented byThatcherism, and in his 1990 bookThe Return of Scarcity he proposed a Common Wealth Estate to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth.[16]
Coombs was appointed aCompanion of the Order of Australia in the first awards of the Order on the Queen's Birthday in 1975. However, he resigned from the Order in 1976 upon the introduction of the grade of knighthood to the Order.[17]
Coombs suffered a disabling stroke in late 1995 and died in Sydney in 1997.[16]
During theHoward government administration, the "Coombs legacy" in Aboriginal affairs came under increasing criticism fromconservative thinkers. JournalistPiers Akerman argued that Coombs's policy amounted to "politically correct apartheid",[18] and that the communal land ownership implicit inAboriginal land rights was keeping Aboriginal people poor and dependent on welfare by preventing the private ownership of land.[19] By contrast, many Aboriginal people retained strong support for Coombs' advocacy, and viewed his work as a precursor of the growth in the Aboriginal rights movement in the 21st century, as was noted byPhilip Lowe, governor of theReserve Bank of Australia, on a trip toYirrkala in 2019.[20]
In January 2008, it was announced that a new suburb in theCanberra district of Molonglo would be namedCoombs. It is adjacent to the suburb of Wright, named for Judith Wright.[21]
Coombs married teacher Mary Alice ('Lallie') Ross at the end of 1931.[citation needed] Nugget and Lallie had four children; Janet (later among the first women admitted to the New South Wales Bar), John (later a Queen’s Counsel), Jim (barrister and magistrate), and Jerry (an anaesthetist).[22][23]
In a June 2009 article inThe Monthly, journalist Fiona Capp revealed the story of the 25-year secret love affair between "the famous poet-cum-activist"Judith Wright and "the distinguished yet down-to-earth statesman" Coombs.[24][25]
Following a Reserve Bank Board meeting in Darwin in July 2019, Governor Philip Lowe visited Yirrkala, Northern Territory as a way of honouring Coombs' strong connection with that community. Lowe met with Yolngu elders and community members – many of whom had personal connections and memories of Coombs. Lowe took the opportunity to discuss economic issues affecting them. He also unveiled a plaque at the place in which Coombs' ashes are buried at Yirrkala. He was accompanied on this journey by Susan Moylan-Coombs, the adopted granddaughter of H C Coombs. Lowe later commented on the warmth of the welcome he and the Bank's party received in Yirrkala and the high esteem in which Coombs continues to be held there.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title Department established | Secretary of theDepartment of Post-War Reconstruction 1943–1948 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia 1949–1960 | Position abolished |
| New title | Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia 1960–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Australian National University 1968–1976 | Succeeded by |
