The bank pledged $300,000 to the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal to alleviate cost of living pressures on the most vulnerable, including from higher interest rates.
National Australia Bank chief executive Ross McEwan said having 120,000 people homeless in Australia was a national “disgrace” and surging demand for social services, including those offered by the Salvation Army, was evidence the cost of living crisis was hitting the most vulnerable members of society very hard.
“You’ve got interest rates going up to slow an economy, you have inflation that we haven’t seen since the 1980s, and that is hurting the pocket of those who can ill afford it,” Mr McEwan told a Salvation Army lunch in Sydney, attended by 400 business leaders and members of the community sector to launch its Red Shield Appeal.
The NAB boss visited a Salvation Army centre in Sydney this week and said he saw people coming in for petrol for their car to get their kids to school. “So while we have this magnificent economy going so well [that is] the envy of the rest of the world, underneath, [some people] are really struggling,” he said.The comments came after former NAB chairman Ken Henry this week criticised the $50-a-day level of the Jobseeker unemployment benefit. “If this tells us one thing, it should tell us that being cruel to people doesn’t work. It’s not what is going to get them into a job,” Dr Henry told the ABC.
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