Codes of Conduct - dated

In late 2008 ANZ introduced a new Code of Conduct and Ethics.  They made it mandatory for all employees to undertake training in the new code with I understand annual maintenance training. 

The fact that ANZ has taken such a significant step highlights the death in understanding and application of the past Code - which is exactly what I experienced whilst at the ANZ Bank.

Please see the List of Articles for Copies of the ANZ Codes of Conduct Evolution.  It is apparent ANZ came to realize that their Codes of Conduct had major gaps following the Opes Prime debacle and my own experience between 2000 and 2003.

It was also clear that the ANZ Employee Whistleblower Protection Policy, a related personnel policy, was not being utilized.  The 2005, 2006 and 2007 ANZ Corporate Responsibility Reports state that no formal investigations were undertaken under the Whistleblower Policy.  Why? Because it was not trusted and anyone who raised concerns suffered retribution.

Therefore ANZ “celebrated” the lack of any formal Whistleblower investigations as a sign of achievement.  However the lack of formal investigations lead to another more realistic conclusion.

Management allowed a corrupt culture to fester where staff were discouraged from blowing the whistle.  Further the policy had severe limitation.  An employee could be sacked or retrenched as occurred in my case and the Whistleblower Policy no longer applied, or if the employee took legal action [as is clearly their right, the ANZ refused to proceed with any further internal investigation and would fight any action brought.  To fight an action was standard practice rather than review the merits of the issue.

Invariable this aggressive stance by the ANZ led to a deepening of the Corrupt Culture.  ANZ Executives had a view that they were never wrong.