Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Since 1989, the Reserve Bank has had the function of formulating monetary policy independently, and this has been understood by Ministers of Finance, including Ruth Richardson, Michael Cullen, and Bill English. Having said that, my view—which I communicated to the governor as part of the consultation process—was that the Reserve Bank should consider targeting the Funding for Lending Programme for the real or productive sectors of the economy. 