That's the question before Glenn Stevens as he finalises his "remarks" for a Trans-Tasman Business Circle meeting. If Glenn Stevens has something to say, now is the right time to say it. Credit:Glenn Hunt (In fact the RBA tells us that Stevens will make a least one other, as yet undiarised, appearance in August. But the question he faces on Tuesday remains.) In his own words Stevens writes his own speeches, the common RBA practice.

Odds are that his words will be chosen as carefully as usual. But it's also likely there will be a clear message within them about where the Australian economy should be heading. Between the lines, more in sorrow than anger, there's likely to be a lament about government failure to make the most of this nation. On Friday the Treasury and Finance Department secretaries had their implied whack at Scott Morrison's first budget in their Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, effectively agreeing that there is no plan to start bringing down government debt, only Goldilocks assumptions. Tomorrow is Stevens' turn. His first speech after Joe Hockey's budget last year effectively damned it with faint praise. It was possible to read into Stevens' words what Hockey should have done – and notably failed to do.

Whole slabs of that speech could be repeated tomorrow and remain very timely. Lacking bravery The Treasury and Finance PEFO effort fell short of bravely seizing the moment to give very full and frank advice, but in an example of bureaucratic understatement that would make Sir Humphrey proud, they did say: "The medium-term projections are underpinned by an assumption of annual productivity growth equal to the average of recent decades. Continued economic reform would be required in order to achieve this growth." In plain English, that means the government and opposition forecasts of reducing government debt are rubbish because they're based on an unlikely assumption.

The only way they won't be rubbish is if there are some serious economic reforms – but there's no sign of that. So there. In the careful RBA ranking of things, Stevens is only making "remarks" on Tuesday, not a full speech. I'd be disappointed though if he doesn't take the chance to add a domestic leg to the internationally-focused speech he delivered in New York last month. There, he warned of the severe limits of monetary policy and joined the central bankers' chorus in wanting governments to do more to stimulate demand through intelligent investment in infrastructure. The same message can be tailored for domestic consumption, building on a theme that Stevens and his successor have been pushing for a couple of years.

They can only try. Last hurrah? So we know Stevens will probably have another spray before finishing up on September 18. He could take more speech bookings or agree to one of the myriad exit-interview requests. It is also possible that he could accept an invitation to front one last parliamentary economics committee hearing.

Loading But the timing to unload on Tuesday is good. It's a month after the New York speech, a week after PEFO, the first chance since the Budget. Sock it to 'em, governor.