Adrian Orr Pushed Out By Neil Quigley – Then The Cover Up Started With Nicola Willis
Adrian Orr Pushed Out By Neil Quigley – Then The Cover Up Started With Nicola Willis
Written By:
- Date published:
9:21 am, August 30th, 2025 - 24 comments
Categories: nicola willis, RBNZ -
Tags: Adrian Orr, central bank, Christian Hawkesby, Cover up, Neil Quigley, scandal
As news hit tonight that RBNZ Chair Neil Quigley resigned with “immediate effect” a few minutes before the 6pm news bulletins, more information is starting to drip out as to why.
In short, Quigley, a National Party loyalist with links to ACT Party regulation, lied to the public about Adrian Orr’s departure from the RBNZ.
And persisted in trying to cover it up to the very end.
Adrian Orr was clearly pushed out and put under significant pressure from Quigley and the RBNZ Board before he “resigned”.
Conservative commentator Michael Reddell writes of this event:
“We have been misled and obstructed, deliberately, from day one – by someone who reveals repeatedly a disdain for public scrutiny and accountability, let alone the law when it might inconvenience him. Almost singlehandedly (although don’t forget Hawkesby and the rest of the Board)..”
Nicola Willis knew too – more on that later.
Importantly, there was also a significant trail of evidence that the RBNZ undertook a concerted efforts to thwart OIA requests about Orr’s departure.
This is one example –
It was not until the Ombusdman ordered RBNZ to release all documents yesterday, that Quigley finally accepted the writing on the wall.
Hence “resignation with immediate effect”.
Remember this all comes against the backdrop of Quigley telling New Zealand Orr left of his own volition:
“It was a personal decision,” we were led to believe from official statements on March 5.
And Nicola Willis concurred – standing by the RBNZ over all these months.
March headlines – Source: RNZ
Well it turns out Orr left the RBNZ a week earlier on February 27, when Hawkesby assumed temporary responsibilities, and Quigley, writing for the Board, sent Adrian a “statement of concerns” – which is a performance management document that can be used to exit executives in due course.
The Herald’s Jenée Tibshraeny reports this came as “tensions between him, the board, Treasury and Finance Minister Nicola Willis over government funding reached boiling point.”
Orr responded to the letter two days later, rejecting the Board’s assertions, but agreed that there was a “lack of trust” between himself and the Board. Days later, he agreed to resign.
A Pattern of Lies
When pressed about Orr’s departure in June 2025, Quigley had claimed Orr was unhappy with the reduced funding envelope from Treasury. The Central Bank then released a series of documents supporting this view.
On June 11, The Post’s political editor, and former NZ Initiative fellow Luke Malpass write an article about Orr based on that information, saying:
“Adrian Orr thought the bank needed more money. His board disagreed, the Minister of Finance disagreed, he found the process distressing and he resigned….
Giving the impression that it was for some undisclosed personal reasons – as the bank has done for three months now which no one really believed, and which the bank confirmed on Wednesday was not really the case – covers no one in glory and leaves an important national institution just a little poorer.”
Again – even that story was a lie. And again Nicola Willis knew.
A deliberate, calculated lie to the New Zealand people, compounded by a persistent, pervasive cover up from Quigley and co.
Christian Hawkesby claimed in May he “couldn’t recall” what happened
Quigley to Shane Reti in 2023. “The first student intake for the Waikato Medical School would be 2027 – a present to you to start your second term in government!”
Dishonest to the end
Reddell’s persistence in trying to shed light on Orr’s departure is commendable. And it saw him have better luck on the Treasury side.
Treasury officials had minuted the explosive meeting between Willis, Orr, Quigley etc. that preceded Orr’s “statement of expectations”.
Once Quigley realised this, the Chair of NZ’s central bank, wrote an extraordinary email back, with a threat, and clear signal that Quigley thought he was above public scrutiny –
“I am .. shocked that the comments are so detailed…Suffice to say that if the minutes were released in anything like its current form it would immediately destroy the goodwill between Treasury and the RBNZ…” – Neil Quigley on an OIA request
Nicola Willis knew too
Tibshraeny reports on whether Nicola Willis was transparent enough:
Pushed on whether she herself had been transparent through the ordeal, Willis said she reiterated on several occasions that the bank should have been more open.
She conceded she knew Orr stepped back from the role before he resigned, and knew the board gave Orr a letter with its concerns…
Willis never responded to questions the Herald emailed her on Thursday night, asking if she still had confidence in Quigley, whether she had been complicit in what looked like a cover-up, and how the public could have confidence in Quigley’s judgement when it came to the appointment of a new Governor.
i.e Nicola Willis knew – and the Finance Minister should resign for this explosive and pervasive act of deception on the people of New Zealand.
The next week will be telling.
This is an excerpt from Mountain Tui: Adrian Orr Cover Up Scandal
We know what should happen. Willis is sacked, the new minister reinforces RB independence.
We also know what will happen. Nothing.
We are still not being told what the "explosive" meeting with Treasury was all about. Was it about "funding", or was it some difference of opinion about monetary policies, past or present.
We can speculate about details but the bigger picture is that Nicola Willis’s dirty fingerprints are all over the place but she’s feigning ignorance & innocence trying her hardest to wash her hands off it and pretend that they’re squeaky clean.
Both Treasury and RBNZ have been undergoing restructuring to meet Nicola Willis’s ideological demands and she’s becoming more impatient (and desperate?). This is just part of the power grab in and of the state sector by the Coalition; the replacement of the head of the Public Service and subsequent restructuring of the complete senior leadership team is another part.
Quigley resigned, but the minutes are still due from the OIA request.
Without Quigley to stifle them, they might shed light.
I predict this is the beginning of the great unravel.
Nicola Willis has her supporters, Luxon being one. However Judith Collins withholding the information from Luxon for 78 days about the FBI office, says she has positioned herself and is confident of her support group. Further the number of hats she has been given, allows her access to a great number of ministries.
So while Willis has played fast and loose with the RSB, tinkering to follow through on her austerity drive, others do not now believe the method is working, so they are diving in to get a share of the redirected funds. The most successful are the Landlords, but close behind is Judith Collins with her 2.3 ? billion Helicopters.
So a picture of Collins with her cabinet should show her parliamentary support group.
Willis is from the South Island, and her base is currently doing well.
The lying, misdirection and positioning has begun, and the loss of Quigley was to divert attention from Willis, but like many of their schemes and promises, it is failing.
Seynore has disappeared from view, his letter and lunch failure exposing his hubris and arrogance, so he has fallen behind Winston, who is positioning himself to be the bigger party in the Coalition currently.
Schemes are brewing imo.
Willis is a list MP from Wellington not the South Island. Thank god for that as a South Islander!
Sorry. Well, her attitude to Wellington with all the cuts!! What an awful Rep.
List MP from Wellington doesn't mean she represents Wellington.
List MPs represent their party.
Thank you Thinker. So she did not even have to consider how her actions would fall on Wellington and the rest of us. A protected species?
Would the Nats go back to Judith as leader? Certainly put the wind up Winnie and Seymour.
Cardinal Richelieu never became King or Pope and JCKC doesn’t have what it takes to become NZ’s top manager, so she should not confirm Peter’s Principle and stay the country’s top lawyer and keep those eyebrows in tiptop shape.
Someone I know in the banking business (NZ is such a small place, it really is) told me there has been bad blood between Willis and the RBNZ since day one. Apparently they initially used to send several well prepped people to meet the minister, who ignored or dismissed their data, instead she preferring to lecture them about the economy. Nowadays they only send 2-3 people for a short catch up.
I predict nothing much will come of all this, except within a pretty limited circle.
None of it is likely to mean squat to poor old Joe (or Jo) Blow trying to get by from payday to payday.
This has nothing to do with Joe, until markets re-price our dollar volatility.
It has been unimpressive to see some commentators on here consistently deny National political interference in the Reserve Bank. And finally we get it chapter and verse.
NZ only survives as it is on the strength of our institutions.
Our NZRB has now had more comprehensive direct interference than the US Federal Reserve from President Trump. The US Fed has consistently and with moral resolve resisted that pressure.
The RBNZ has fully caved, and Treasury was only one of the weapons Willis and Luxon used
The issues have been
Orr's tough capital requirements on banks and banks seeking this government to ease this.
Orr wanting more, not less funding for the RB.
The more recent issue has been Luxon being seen to advocate for a lower OCR – a PM coveting popularity (if only with the property owning class).
And Willis, waiting to be rewarded for her economic legacy (flat-line) with a lower OCR, while being seen as a safe pair of hands by our creditors, money markets and peers as per our governance processes.
This was the character who paid Steven Joyce close on a million dollars to consult at Waikato university. And low! A medical school was discovered lurking in the reeds.
What else has Joyce been up to and what access and resulting jobs have occurred?
Funneling public money to private pals is popular across a bunch of portfolios these days.
But surely it’s worth seeing if anyone else linked to Joyce’s consulting has picked up this kind of job? And in general what is he up to? Enabling foreign billionaires?
Political interference and they have been caught red-handed. The government wants to control monetary policy, a cheap dollar, cheap migrant labour; along with boosting exports for farmers their political base.
The Reserve Bank should be apolitical.
There is a very recent article on Central Bank independence in Jacobin Magazine, which is worth reading.
https://jacobin.com/2025/08/central-bank-independence-trump-cook
Can't believe they (Nats and their friendly media) are being allowed to spin this as restoring trust and integrity to the RBNZ when it was Willis and her operative inside, Neil Quigley, who destroyed it in the first place.
Willis had been after Orr for years and the meeting where he apparently blew up conveniently provided the circumstances for Quigley to send the written warning (precursor to dismissal).
In MY OPINION it was orchestrated by Willis, and more recent actions by Luxon prove they are quite happy to interfere with one of the most important independent institutions in the country, for political gain.
After Heather Duplicity-Allen went a bit hard on Willis just after 6pm on Friday, National Party economist, Brad Olsen, rang in unsolicited to defend and paint her as strong and decisive.
Outrageous.
If it wasnt orchestrated by Willis then it smacks of incompetence. Either way, over reaching her mandate and meddling where she shouldnt, or a lack of ability and management, Willis proving herself not fit to be finance minister
The hardest hits on Nats are usually done by Nats.
Rumours Key was a source on the Hollow Men.
This doesn’t seem like Chris Bishop’s style, though he might have the most to gain, so maybe Simeon Brown? Or the lady Audrey Young was praising the other day?
Unhappiness with Luxon noted, Willis reported to be doing the numbers, and now embroiled in scandal. Leaving who to pick up the pieces? Bishop, Brown or Stanford?
Have we ever had the 2 top positions of the reserve bank resign in such short order under a previous Minister of Finance?
I found the quote (via Mountain Tui) that I was seeking some weeks ago:
"It is why Finance Minister Willis is lost, with no answers to the nation's stagnation. It is why she has no plan. It is why she ran to Business NZ last week asking them what to do. It is why she runs to the NZ Initiative asking them what to do. It is why the PM runs to his economic adviser Burgess asking what to do. It is why they get no practical answers." – Robert MacCulloch
ref: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360575803/core-reason-why-coalition-failing