Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has used the launch of a new $50 bank note to have a crack at the deteriorating relationship between men and women in Federal Parliament, amid allegations of bullying and gender based intimidation forcing one Liberal MP to resign and others to question their future.

In a rare public intervention on a social issue, Dr Lowe gave a speech to his fellow Reserve Bank Board members that recited the microtext on the new note, featuring Edith Cowan - Australia's first female member of Parliament.

"I stand here today in the unique position of being the first woman in an Australian Parliament," the new note reveals in text of Ms Cowan's first speech usually only visible with a magnifying glass.

RBA governor Philip Lowe. Credit:Bloomberg

"If men and women can work for the same state side by side and represent all the different sections of the community ... I cannot doubt that we should do very much better work in the community than was ever done before."