‘The standard we measure ourselves against’: Honouring the past, helping today

Asked to reflect on what the ANZAC legacy means for today’s men and women in military service, Rowan Johnston says the story of the original ANZACs still resonates strongly. “They’re the standard we measure ourselves against,” he says. “It's the understanding and the respect that we have for the people who came before us. When the call came, they answered.”

A lieutenant in the Army Reserve, Johnston says legendary Australian general Sir John Monash is one of several leaders he admires from that first ANZAC era. Like Johnston, Monash was a “citizen soldier”, an engineer in ordinary life who balanced part-time service commitments with a full-time career. It’s a situation that carries particular challenges for Australia’s more than 30,000 reserve personnel and their families.

Having a supportive employer helps enormously in making the balancing act possible, Johnston says. Working as Manager of Credit Strategy in Commonwealth Bank’s Business Banking Credit Centre of Excellence in Hobart, Johnston says employer support through things like flexible defence leave policies makes a big difference. For example, it means he doesn’t have to take unpaid leave from his corporate career to meet longer defence commitments like supporting the community through Operation Bushfire Assist on Kangaroo Island through late 2019 and early 2020.

“The military leave policy that we have here at CommBank is as good as it gets,” he says. “It keeps my family supported when I go, which is excellent. Knowing that there aren’t any financial concerns while I'm away is really big.”

Growing skills and leadership

But CommBank benefits as well. Johnston says having a military career as well as a civilian one has allowed him to get training and develop skills highly relevant to his day job. “There's a big overlap between the two roles for me. There's lots of learnings from complex project deliveries I've had at Army that I've brought into CommBank,” he says.

One of the biggest crossover skills is in planning. “As an officer, you spend a lot of time planning. You plan individually, you plan as part of groups, and you execute tasks,” he says. There are also great opportunities to develop leadership and people skills in the military. But as a business lender, possibly the biggest crossover is learning to safely and responsibly manage risks, Johnston says. “That's something that I got my head around quite early in my officer career, because of my experience in writing business loans,” he says.

Connecting veterans at CommBank

Two years ago CommBank established a dedicated Veterans Employee Network to connect curernt and former service personnel employed by the bank. Johnston says it’s a great way to make connections and share experiences. But network secretary Julie Hall says it’s just as important that it supports spouses, partners and other family members.

For example, military service often means relocating, she says. “Spouses and partners sometimes only get quite short notice when their partners are transferred,” Hall says. “That disrupts not only their current role, but their career development, so CBA supporting them with transitioning locations is really important.” CommBank also has dedicated business bankers to assist veterans and families make the transition from service to business ownership once they leave full-time service, she says.

Supporting families of veterans

Whether it’s moving, setting up a business or embarking on a new career, transitioning to life after military service has its own challenges.

But it can also be tough, and never more so than for families of service personnel that tragically don’t make it home. Founded in 1923 to help widows and children of soldiers that fell in the First World War, Legacy continues helping families profoundly affected by military service and conflict today.

Sydney Legacy acting President David Glasson says the people he deals with as a ‘Legatee’, as the organisation’s volunteers are known, range from a 104-year-old widow of the Second World War to young families. The help Legacy provides can be as simple as a phone call or as involved as help navigating services says Glasson, himself a former Royal Australian Air Force pilot and a continuing member of the Air Force Reserve.

“A lot of our elderly widows live alone, and they don't necessarily have too much social contact. So just a visit, a cup of tea, a call on their birthday means that they feel like they're still connected to people,” he says. “And sometimes it can be bigger, like helping people to get work done around the house or essential services when they're getting more elderly and more frail.”

But Glasson says Legacy services aren’t only for the elderly, saying as part of his volunteering work he personally deals with two younger veteran families affected by more recent conflicts. “Once again, it’s just being there. It’s that thing of having someone to be able to talk to, to help guide you through some of the really complex things, when you're trying to make sense of the education system or the pension system or other support networks”.

Today, Legacy supports 28,000 family members of veterans across Australia, providing personalised financial, social and practical support. Earlier this year, the organisation expanded its eligibility to assist more families, removing the requirement for a veteran to have completed a period of operational service. 

This major eligibility change was in direct response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide and reflects the realities of modern service, Glasson says.

This ANZAC Day weekend, Legatees from the Nepean Division will represent Legacy at the annual Hawkesbury Show in Sydney’s west, close to RAAF Richmond. As part of the event, CommBank is making a $10,000 donation to Legacy as part of its CommBank Tour initiative for regional Australia. CommBank staff will also support the charity by selling traditional Legacy pins and other merchandise.

Legatee Glasson says joining Legacy gave him a way to engage with the community once he left full-time service. “It's not something that you have to do every day, but, you know, when you get a chance to do something and help people out, it is very fulfilling,” he says.