Westpac under fire over Yes vote email

Westpac has been accused of ‘blackmailing’ staff into supporting same-sex marriage.

Westpac has been accused of “blackmailing” staff into supporting same-sex marriage after an email was sent to employees urging them to vote Yes and saying it “would prevent 3000 suicides per year”.

Westpac spokesman David Lording yesterday confirmed the email from the bank’s youth network was sent to as many as 10,000 of the bank’s 40,000 employees and admitted the figure of 3000 ­suicides was a “mistake”. The ­research cited was talking about only suicide attempts.

“We said that we would get that information clarified to the staff and we will do that,” Mr Lording said.

According to the Australian ­Bureau of Statistics, there have been fewer than 2795 deaths a year on average from suicide over the past five years. It did not list motives for the suicides.

Maurice Newman, a former chairman of the Australian ­Securities Exchange and ABC, ­argued it was incumbent on Westpac to correct the record.

“It is a dangerous precedent for companies to come out and prosecute social issues. That is for politicians,” Mr Newman said. “I question whether that is something that companies should be occupying their time with.”

The criticism of the Westpac email came as the No campaign secured a venue for its Hobart rally tonight, but only after a another rebuff from a third venue.

Coalition for Marriage spokeswoman Monica Doumit said the management of one of the venues that previously had refused to host the event — the University of Tasmania’s Stanley Burbury Lecture Theatre — had reversed its position.

“The vice-chancellor (Peter Rathjen) suggested we reapply for the venue. We did that. Then we got confirmation that they ­approved it now,’’ Ms Doumit said.

The rally will include speakers such as Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi, Victorian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, Hobart archbishop Julian Porteous and Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton.

Prominent Nationals and Liberal MPs yesterday joined a chorus of criticism of Westpac over the email to workers.

Senator Matt Canavan, a No campaigner and former cabinet minister, said the bank’s youth network, representing staff younger than 30, was trying to “blackmail other Australians through guilt into agreeing with them”.

“It is also contemptible to use the always tragic circumstances of suicide to try and win a political debate,” Senator Canavan said.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton also questioned why Westpac was involved in the same-sex marriage debate.

“Stick to your knitting,” Mr Dutton said on Sydney 2GB radio.

The email told staff that Westpac had signed an open letter last year supporting same-sex marriage. “This is a no-brainer (if Tony Abbott’s daughter is publicly voting ‘Yes’, so should you),” the ­email said­. “Along with ensuring all our colleagues ... feel included and have equal rights, legalising SSM would prevent 3000 suicides per year.”

The bank’s youth network based its claim on a September 21 press release issued by the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre to mark the launch of the #mindthefacts campaign encouraging Australians to consider the links between suicide and discrimination of young LGBTI ­people. According to the release — which was backed by mental health advocacies the Black Dog Institute, headspace and ReachOut — as many as 3000 youth ­suicide attempts could be averted each year if people voted Yes.

The claim relied upon US ­research published in the April issue of JAMA Paediatrics suggesting same-sex marriage policies had been associated with a “7 per cent relative reduction” in the proportion of high-school students ­attempting suicide.

This finding has since been called into question. In a subsequent letter to the journal’s editor, University of Liverpool neuro­logist Joseph Kamtchum Tatuene said those behind the study had “jumped over a few steps in the journey from association to causation”.

“They did not report the ­motives of the suicide attempts, making it impossible to know whether these were attributable to the perspective of not having ­access to marriage,” he said.

University of Sydney health sciences academic James Athanasou also cautioned against drawing too much from the claims, noting that suicide was a “complex phenomenon” that was difficult to pin to a “single cause”.

A spokesman for the #mindthefacts campaign said the group stood by the facts quoted at the time of the launch.

“The causes of suicide are complex and we are not suggesting a reduction of 3000 deaths by ­suicide,” he said.

Additional reporting: Matthew Denholm