Australian monetary policy in the last quarter of the twentieth century

This paper was delivered as the 1998 Shann Memorial Lecture. It describes t he evolution of Australia's monetary policy over the past 25 years. It focu ses on three aspects of this development: first, improvements to the instit utional structure, second, the search for the optimal policy framework; and third, the issue of central bank independence. Particular attention is pai d to the period between the end of monetary targeting (1985) and the introd uction of inflation targeting (1993).