Big Four unite in rare front to promote Australian vaccination

04 October 2021 Consultancy.com.au

Australia’s biggest professional services firms have come together in a rare united front to push for greater vaccination rates against Covid-19, citing a $10 billion gain to the economy per month.

In what may be a historic first, the Big Four professional services firms of Australia – fierce on-field rivals PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG – have come together to promote vaccination uptake in Australia toward the 80 percent target, placing joint adverts in the Saturday editions of the country’s largest newspapers. While they often agree on most topics, in private, such a unified front is practically unheard of.

In addition to the adverts, the quartet have set up a joint web-page – under the clever accounting campaign title of ‘Vax Return’, to extol the value of vaccination buy-in to businesses and society at large. According to the ads, opening up at an 80 percent double-dosed rate will put around $10 billion per month back into the Australian economy, with businesses and families having already taken a $170 billion hit due to the pandemic so far.

Big Four unite in rare front to promote Australian vaccination

The campaign, which follows on the back of Accenture’s national push this week in conjunction with Advertising Council Australia and features in the Age, the Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian, among others, has seen the chief executives of each firm – all fairly recently installed and having to contend with Covid-19 in the early days of their tenure – step up to provide commentary.

Tom Seymour, CEO of PwC Australia:
“We've come together to back the national vaccination campaign. Our people are getting vaccinated, they want to get back to our offices and client sites, and get back to normality. Safe reopening will bring significant economic gains for our country – a $30 billion benefit in the first three months. Let's get this done together.”

Adam Powick, CEO of Deloitte Australia:
"Vaccination is essential if Australia is to emerge as quickly as possible from disruptive cycles of lock-downs and to commence the urgent task of re-opening our country. As a firm and a profession, we are strongly encouraging and supporting our people to get vaccinated and the response to this call has been overwhelmingly positive.”

David Larocca, CEO of EY Oceania CEO:
“Covid-19 continues to present many challenges. The lengthy lock-downs in many parts of our region, separation from loved ones and impact on lives and livelihoods has been hard. There is light at the end of the tunnel though as we move towards 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates. Resuming the activities and reconnecting with the people we miss is predicated on achieving these levels of vaccination across the community.”

Andrew Yates, CEO of KPMG Australia:
“It’s great to see light at the end of the lock-down tunnel. I firmly believe it’s overwhelmingly in the best interests of our society that people get vaccinated as soon as possible, and allow our economies to re-open.”