In ordinary times, Australians are used to hearing the more waffly type of “qualitative” guidance, meaning only general hints are dropped on future rate moves, and usually only after much cajoling and questioning from journalists. For the journalists who regularly cover Reserve Bank decisions, it’s a complex process of learning to read the tea leaves. In contrast, Lowe’s language during the crisis was like a double shot of espresso delivered straight into the veins.

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If Lowe and Co are guilty of anything, I think it’s a degree of naivety about how the media would receive their bold – if heavily caveated – statements about future rate rises.

Did the bank set out to deliberately mislead the public about the likely path of future rate rises? A cynic would say so. To the extent people were, indeed, misled and did, in fact, borrow more, this helped prop up house prices and the economy. But I don’t think that was ever the explicit intent of the comments, which were more aimed at wholesale money markets.

Mortgages, after all, are 25 or 30-year long affairs, and a borrower who can’t afford a rate rise in 2022 probably couldn’t afford one in 2024 either and should never have got their loan. In which case, it is lenders, mortgage brokers and prudential regulators who should be apologising.

Forcing Lowe to apologise for damage caused by his use of “forward guidance” seems a bit like forcing a firefighter who stopped a house from burning down to return to apologise for water damage caused by one of the hoses.

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Of course, lessons should be learnt – and are being learnt – at the Reserve about how to use this particularly powerful policy tool in future shocks. In a recent internal review, the bank stated if it were to use forward guidance again in “very adverse circumstances” it would be much less specific and any time-based estimates kept to a much shorter horizon. Which seems wise.

In the meantime, it seems petulant that Lowe and Co should receive only brickbats for their efforts. Our economy did not burn to the ground, thanks in large part due to the RBA’s extraordinary efforts. We approach Christmas with an economy in full employment for the first time in half a century. Sure, paying a mortgage with interest rates 3 percentage points higher than you expected is tough. But it’s even tougher if you don’t have a job. And surely Lowe deserves a bouquet – or two – for that.

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