In his Opening Statement to House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration given on 8 December I.J. Macfarlane of the Reserve Bank of Australia said he wanted to assure the Committee that the bank remains committed to the inflation targeting framework and that the decisions taken over the past 18 months have been fully consistent with that framework. It does not seem plausible to us, Macfarlane said, to argue that the Bank could have been confident of