For some 35 years, it's been a major part of my job to observe, report and comment on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). In that time, I can't remember a worse speech by a governor than that delivered by Philip Lowe at the annual Anika Foundation lunch on Wednesday.

I'm a big fan of the RBA – we've been very fortunate with the quality of culture and leadership, the integrity of thought and research, at our central bank. Which makes it so surprising that the governor either didn't consider, or chose to omit, two important reasons for our stubbornly low wages growth.

In more than 3000 words on the labour market and monetary policy, with a specific section on the mystery of low wages growth, there was not a single mention of the decline of unionism. The words "unions" or "organised" do not appear in the speech.

Lowe admitted nobody really knows why there is a global slowdown in wages growth, but he doesn't help shed light on the issue by ignoring two obvious partial reasons for the Australian experience.