By Aashna Pillay, Campaigns and Policy Coordinator, ActionAid Australia
Just before Christmas, I travelled to Sydney for ANZ’s Annual General Meeting. Bank AGMs are full of formalities – financial reporting, electing board members – but they’re also a chance to ask hard questions to hold banks to account.
I wanted to know whether ANZ’s high expectations for upholding gender equality extend to the companies the bank gives its money to, and the way these companies treat their staff and the communities impacted by their operations.
ANZ’s Chair Paul O’Sullivan told me it was a very interesting question to raise.
ANZ prides itself as a corporate leader on gender equality. The bank has stated values of diversity, inclusion and respect and has goals to ensure its staff and customers feel supported and welcome. The bank has an active LGBTIQ+ network, has policies to support women and gender diversity in its workforce, and supports programs across Australia that have gender equality goals.
But despite all the gender equality work they’ve committed to within the bank, ANZ still gives billions of dollars to customers, like fossil fuel companies, that are eroding women’s rights.
How did ANZ answer my question?
I was disappointed – but not surprised – to learn that ANZ hadn’t considered the disconnect between their own internal commitments to gender equality and the harmful impacts on gender equality that their money is having elsewhere.
ANZ has given upwards of a whopping $20 billion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement was signed. Just over a year ago, our ActionAid report, Financing Climate Destruction, showed how Australian banks’ money to fossil fuels is having devastating impacts on women in the Global South – violating their rights and causing unimaginable climate destruction.
Women bear the brunt of fossil fuel impacts
Fossil fuel projects contaminate drinking water and soil, causing crop failures, killing fish, and making people sick. Women bear the brunt of these harms because they’re disproportionately responsible for providing food, water, and care for people in their community when they are unwell. When food is in short supply, women are also most likely to skip meals to allow others to eat.
Fossil fuel projects often attract an influx of male workers – increasing the local demand for sex work and putting women at risk of contracting life-threatening infections like HIV.
And fossil fuel driven climate change has heavier impacts on women, exacerbating existing gender inequalities and increasing pressure and expectations on women.
ANZ must take a stand for women’s rights
While banks are financing climate destruction, it can feel hard to find hope. But in response to my question at the AGM, ANZ’s CEO Nuno Matos said that while the bank doesn’t currently have a fully formed policy to make sure their company customers follow their approach to gender equality, they would “follow up … with pleasure”.
Actions speak louder than words. This is ANZ’s chance to uphold the values they’ve told us about, and really take a stand for women’s rights. We’ll be speaking with ANZ further about how they can strengthen their commitments to gender equality – will you back our message and add your name to our letter to Nuno?
Together, let’s continue to demand better from our banks – to secure a fossil free, feminist future for us all.