Commonwealth Bank has helped launch the next phase of the federal government’s national “Stop It at the Start” campaign, “Bring Up Respect,” which was designed to stop violence against women and children.
CBA CEO Matt Comyn was present at the unveiling of the ad campaign at CommBank Stadium which encourages people of influence, including parents, grandparents, teachers, and sporting coaches, to help younger generations understand the value and need for respect.
Marise Payne, Federal Government’s Minister for Women and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said the ads encourage people with influence to “play their part” and teach those they have influence over about respect.
Also at the launch was Anne Ruston, Minister for Families and Social Services and Minister for Women’s Safety, who said the message contained in the ads was a pertinent one.
“Not all disrespect ends up as violence, but all violence starts with disrespect,” Ruston said.
After debuting the new phase of the campaign to a room of community sector partners, a panel discussion was held to discuss the strategies government, corporates, community, and sporting organisations are employing to help address financial, domestic and family abuse. Sitting on the panel with Comyn and Ruston were Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins; former Australian football player and CEO of Committee for Adelaide, Bruce Djite; with Our Watch Board Director, Kerry Chikavoski, moderating the discussion.
Speaking about CBA’s contribution, Comyn said the bank had done a lot of work to raise awareness of the issue of financial, domestic, and family abuse. Internally, he said the bank had put a great deal of focus on respect and the use of language.
“We have trained thousands of our people in real subtleties around body language and tone, and perhaps trying to overcome naivety in some cases, and in other cases ignorance,” he said. “The second part to that is we have been working with thousands of our people through bystander training, which is a very similar arc to the way it was described in terms of this campaign. You have to create the education and then give people the courage, the tools, maybe a bit more of the permission to overcome that hesitation in the moment to say, ‘Hey, that’s not OK.’”
CBA has been working with community organisations and experts since 2015 to address the issue of financial abuse perpetrated through domestic and family violence.
In 2020, the bank launched CommBank Next Chapter as part of its efforts to support people impacted by financial abuse. The program delivers a range of services, support, resources, and research to the market.
Just last month, the bank rolled out a new awareness campaign, called CommBank Next Chapter Commitment, which sees CBA, customers and the community come together to end financial abuse. The campaign provides tools, advice and access to support services to help individuals recover from financial abuse and establish financial independence.
The new phase of the “Stop It at the Start” campaign will be live across broadcast and print channels in the coming days.
