Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev was backed by the movers and shakers of corporate Australia yesterday as he said there was “no excuse” for not promoting women.
Over 750 executives, including 430 men and over 100 CEOs met for lunch in support of workplace gender equality as the Male Champions of Change delivered their progress report five years since Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick established the group.
Dame Quentin Bryce, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and ANZ chief executive Mike Smith were among the big names at The Westin Grand Ballroom with The Weekly.
As the economic benefits of flexible work and targets were discussed, Narev said assumptions around “the weak pipeline of women” stunting the growth of female leadership doesn’t – and shouldn’t – exist.
“I can tell you that from the Commonwealth Bank’s point of view – with three of our major P&L businesses run by women, two other of our executive team and staff roles as women, three exceptional non-executive Directors who are women – the idea that you have to compromise on quality to get women in leadership roles is simply fanciful. So we left that excuse at the door,” said Narev.
“We set out to make a meaningful and sustainable difference to the numbers of women in leadership roles and the numbers are too slow. They are too small. We would not accept that level of progress in any other aspect of our business. We must not accept as we stand here today that enough is being done.”
And as the NSW Minister for Women Pru Goward yesterday announced the government would be investing more than $5 billion over the next three years to fight the domestic violence crisis by implementing four pilot men’s behavioural change programs, the issue wasn’t ignored by the power in the room.
Narev thanked Australian of the Year and Family Violence advocate, Rosie Batty, for her support and attendance. While Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison urged employers to both recognise and support domestic violence sufferers in the workplace, likening the family violence occurring in Australia to brutal war zones he’s walked through.
“I’ve seen, first hand, great violence perpetrated against women and children, almost entirely by men, during the course of a long military career,” said Morrison.
“I’ve come to understand that the terrible things that happen in war zones – murder, rape, assaults, the stripping away of dignity and the absence of hope – they are just as much present in our own communities, in our own families, as they are in seemingly more troubled countries.
“It is just that they happen behind closed doors. Away from the lens of the war correspondent. Ignored by the neighbours and even family members, unspoken, but just as life shattering.”
