My name's Justin McCarthy, General Manager of Investor Relations at Westpac. Welcome to today's briefing on sustainability. It's both in-person and online, and there'll be a recording available on the website a little bit later. We'll also have a Q&A session at the end. For those online, instructions to ask questions were provided with your invitation, and for those in the room, if you could turn your phones to silent, that'd be great, and then you'll have the opportunity to meet some of the team at the end of the session. With that, I'll hand over to Peter King to introduce. Thank you. Well, good morning, and welcome, everyone. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we're on today, being the Gadigal people, and pay my respects to elders, past and present, and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with us today. At our full year results, we released a series of climate-related updates, and today we'll provide a more detailed briefing on the actions we are taking. This year, we updated our sustainability strategy to align with the four strategic pillars in our group strategy. It's centered on the role we play in helping create a positive social, economic, and environmental impact. The close alignment with the group's strategy assists embedding sustainability into the way that we do business. To that end, earlier in the year, we appointed Anthony Miller to lead sustainability across the group. Becoming a more sustainable bank makes good business sense, and provides growth opportunities by supporting customers and the nation in transitioning to net zero. Responding to climate change is also the expectation of regulators, investors, rating agencies, and customers. A significant part of sustainability strategy is climate, and we have a clear plan of action: firstly, to reduce our operational emissions. Secondly, to support customers in their transition to net zero, and this includes how we support the nation's transition through our role as a financier of major energy infrastructure. And finally, to collaborate on economy-wide initiatives, including with government, regulators, and the industry. We are making good progress. In Australia, we're sourcing the equivalent of 100% of renewable electricity, while our electricity generation lending portfolio comprises 84% to renewables. We put 3,000 bankers through specialist ESG training. We're also making progress on setting targets to reduce our financed emissions in line with our Net Zero Banking Alliance commitments. With 12 sector targets in place, our focus now is to integrate them into our operations and to work closely with customers to support their transition. We've also reset our sustainable finance ambition to provide AUD 55 billion of lending and AUD 40 billion of bond facilitation by 2030. Australia's transition needs to gather pace. We have the right policy ambitions, but the hard work of building our renewable generation, firming capacity, expanding the grid, and electrifying homes and businesses is ahead of us. At our annual general meeting next month, we're asking shareholders to support our Climate Change Position Statement and Action Plan. We believe climate change will impact the economy and customers, and therefore, it is a risk that must be managed. Transition also creates opportunities for customers and for us, and I'll hand over to Anthony Miller now to take you through our thinking. Thank you. So, thanks, Peter, and good morning, everyone. As the executive responsible, my task is to drive integration of sustainability into how we do business every day. To support our customers and ensure we deliver value for shareholders, we must run our business in a sustainable way. That means at Westpac, every decision we make, every service or product we provide, and every transaction we intend to enter into must deliver value for customer, shareholder, and meet the expectations of the wider community. To illustrate how we're working to integrate sustainability into the way we run the bank, we'll focus on three areas of our strategy today. First, how Westpac is reducing the impact of our upstream emissions. Second, how we're partnering with our customers as they transition to net zero. And finally, how we're supporting customers who are experiencing costs of living challenges. To bring this to life, I've asked our business leaders, the people doing, to share how we're integrating sustainability into our operations. First, we'll hear from Ceri Binding, the Head of Utilities and Direct Environment. Ceri has been instrumental in reducing our direct emissions and is the architect of Westpac's renewable energy program. We'll then hear from Al Welsh, Managing Director, Corporate and Institutional Banking. Al is one of the group's most experienced bankers. Al will discuss our approach to supporting customers' transition in the oil and gas space.... We'll then hear from Peta Ward, our National General Manager of Regional and Agribusiness. Growing up on the land, Peta has a unique perspective of the industry, and she's been engaging with our customers on our new targets and their emission reduction plans. And then we'll hear finally from Lisa Pogonoski, the Group General Manager, Customer Solutions. Lisa's team is responsible for helping our customers in hardship. Assisting customers through good and bad economic cycles is a foundational role for the bank. Lisa will share with you the lengths we will go to, to give customers the financial breathing space and the confidence to get back on their feet. This is such an important part of the bank, and where we believe sustainability is truly embedded in how we operate every day. It's good for our customers. It ensures that we retain them in the long term, and therefore, that's just good banking business. Before I hand over to my colleagues, I want to expand on how we're working to integrate sustainability right across the bank. Foundationally, our aim is simple: to partner with our customers. We're stepping up the way sustainability is integrated in the way we do business each day. For example, it's part of, and integrated into, our lending and decision-making. This has been good for business and is enabling us to grow safely and sustainably. This year, we participated in 58 sustainable finance transactions and provided AUD 6.5 billion in new lending to climate change solutions. We launched a Carbon Footprint Tracker in our Westpac app for select retail customers, helping them estimate their carbon footprint. We've also launched an electric vehicle loan in Australia and new sustainable farm and business loans in New Zealand. The opportunities are there, and they continue to grow. To assist in the transition, we're reducing the impact of financed emissions, but the emphasis here is important. We want to grow our book and build a portfolio aligned with net zero. This is supported by our Net Zero Banking Alliance targets and our approach to customer engagement. As part of our NZBA commitment, we've now set 12 targets, and most recently included dairy, beef, and sheep, and a commitment to no deforestation. Peta Ward will provide more detail on this shortly. We've also provided our customers with clarity on what is sustainable finance. There are just so many products and services in the marketplace that claim to be sustainable. We need transparency, we need certainty, we need confidence. At Westpac, therefore, we've set up a Sustainable Finance Framework and taxonomy. Our framework details how we classify transactions as either green, transition, social, or sustainability-linked, and is in line with international best practice. We have set criteria for many sectors, including power generation, commercial real estate, and health. Having rigor behind our definitions and measurement gives our stakeholders confidence and allows for a more effective management. When it comes to measuring sustainable finance on our balance sheet, we've adopted a point-in-time approach. We believe this is more credible and aligns with the genuine impact of our lending. Another way we are operationalizing sustainability is through our discussions with institutional customers in relation to their transition plans. Our approach has always been to engage deeply with our customers on their financials, where we seek to understand their business in great detail, and then work with them and partner with them in the delivery on those financial plans. We're doing exactly the same with transition plans. As we've always done, if a customer is challenged, either from a financial plan or transition plan perspective, we're going to work with them. We'll consider our position statements, share our expertise and judgments, we're going to table solutions, and we're going to provide the necessary risk appetite to help them deliver on their plan. You'll hear more from Al later on this particular topic. In the business division, we have recently announced targets in the property and agri sectors. The challenges here are quite unique. Every single business varies in size, resource availability, and the capacity to effect change. And so to assist, we're creating tools to help customers better understand their emissions and identify what they need to then implement, and those tools will be rolled out through the course of financial year 2024. In the agricultural industry, we're also supporting farmers to successfully integrate traditional agricultural practices with carbon and biodiversity credits. On some farms, carbon credits are produced via changes in land management practices or through the planting of trees to sequester carbon. Importantly, we're focused on partnering with the farmers to get the balance right, ensuring productivity on the property is not impacted, but also ensure that they have that opportunity to diversify their revenue, diversify their business. The business opportunity for our natural resources sector is also quite significant, and we see it as a very significant source of a safe and sustainable growth path going forward. To meet carbon emissions goals by 2030, the International Energy Agency forecasts the world will need products from around 50 new lithium mines, 60 new nickel mines, and 17 new cobalt mines. The Australian resources sector is very well placed to play a key role in supplying this demand. Already, since 2022, Westpac has provided over AUD 1 billion worth of support to both existing and new customers in the transition mineral sector. Our pipeline is large and continues to grow. I also wanted to mention that over the last five years, we've lent more to Australian renewable energy than any other bank by total committed exposure, and in the last 24 months alone, we have executed more than a dozen renewable energy transactions, and we currently provide finance to over 10 GW of renewable energy capacity. Deployment rates of renewable energy need to double by 2030, with the Australian Energy Market Operator estimating that Australia will need to invest approximately AUD 320 billion in new energy infrastructure. We therefore welcome the government's recent announcement on the expansion of the Capacity Investment Scheme and the National Energy Transformation Partnership. This scheme underwrites new renewable generation and storage and provides critical certainty and direction for the market. The government's goal that the nation will be powered by 82% renewable energy by 2030 represents a very significant program of change and investment. To support this transition alone, pumped hydro and batteries will be needed to provide long and short duration energy storage, and this week itself was a significant investment opportunity for our customers and therefore for Westpac. So therefore, we think about supporting transition to net zero is just really good business and really good banking business. We acknowledge that there's going to be challenges and that the progress isn't going to be linear. We all need to manage the potential social impacts along the way, and at Westpac, we aim to support a transition that is just and inclusive. We also recognize that we need to be open-minded and flexible. We can't have dogma. The science is going to continue to evolve, and new policies and new priorities will emerge in the coming years. Before I hand over to Ceri, I want to leave you with this thought: at Westpac, we see sustainability, as you've heard from me, as the basis for how we run our business. It's good business and therefore aligns with our purpose at Westpac to create better futures together. Let me now hand over to Ceri Binding. Thank you. Thank you, Anthony, and good morning, everyone. My team and I are responsible for Westpac's operational environmental footprint. This includes our Scope 1 emissions, being those arising from our direct operations, such as fuel consumption. Our Scope 2 emissions, the indirect emissions that arise from purchased electricity. Our Scope 3 supplier emissions, which we also refer to as upstream emissions. And our carbon offset program. We're committed to leading by example and using our experience and learnings to support our suppliers, employees, and customers with their own emissions reduction journeys. As we work to reduce our emissions, we're focused on also delivering wider social and environmental benefits while maintaining strong commercial outcomes. These can be achieved concurrently. Today, I'll share with you some of the principles we're applying, the progress we've made on our Scope 1 and 2 and upstream Scope 3 emissions, our current reduction priorities, and our approach to carbon offsetting. I'll start with our approach on renewables. About 90% of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions is, or rather was, driven by purchased electricity. So in 2019, we set a goal to secure the equivalent of 100% of our electricity demand from renewables by 2025. We reached our 100% renewables outcome for our Australian operations early in March this year. We're proud of this achievement, but more so of the approach that we've taken. We've supported the development of over 125 megawatts of incremental renewables capacity by entering into greenfield power purchase agreements. Our first PPA underwrote Spark Renewables' Bomen Solar Farm facility in Wagga Wagga. We buy just over a quarter of the output from this facility, but in total, it generates enough electricity to power 35,000 homes. Under our agreement, the site is multi-use, hosting sheep for a local farmer and beehives for the local beekeeping society. A AUD 1 million community fund has financed educational programs at a local high school, as well as the planting of nearly 50,000 native plants to regreen an area near Wagga Wagga. We were also the cornerstone contract for Flow Power's Berri Energy project in South Australia, which went live earlier this year. We've committed to buying 45% of the output from this facility for 10 years. This site is also multi-use. Native vegetation will be established. It will again host native beehives and includes an agreement to support local residents with their energy transition. Our renewables sourcing strategy is not only adding to grid capacity, but also delivering improved nature and community outcomes. The multi-technology approach we've taken, so we contract solar, wind, and battery to meet our national demand, together with the cornerstone contracting, has also delivered strong economic value. So we've made great progress on our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, delivering a 66% reduction since 2021, achieving our 2025 emissions reduction target two years ahead of plan. The step down over the last year was driven by the completion of our transition to renewables for our Australian operations, but it was also supported by a reduction in our property footprint, including the consolidation of six commercial premises into more efficient locations, such as our new six-star energy-rated office in Parramatta Square. So what's next for Scope 1 and 2 emissions? The key next step for us is transitioning our international footprint to renewables. We're likely to initially meet our objective through green power and certificate purchases, but we have our eyes set on supporting the delivery of physical, incremental, renewable energy capacity, particularly for our businesses in Fiji and PNG. As we work to maintain our long-term 100% renewables position nationally, we're also leveraging this program of work to support our employees, suppliers, and customers with their renewables transition journeys. Scope 3. Look, we've made significant progress with our upstream Scope 3 emissions, too. We're at a much earlier stage of our journey in this space, but last year we refreshed our carbon, our emissions reduction target to align with a 1.5-degree climate scenario. Business travel and employee commute remained low in 2022 after COVID, but last year, the pickup in travel increased our emissions by about 16%. Despite this, we've delivered a 4% net reduction by actively working with suppliers to reduce emissions and improve data capture. The primary drivers of these reductions in 2023 included the sourcing of renewables by our third-party data center for 50% of their consumption, increased renewables by our landlords for our base buildings, and moving to a new secure waste provider for improved waste management with improved waste management capabilities. So what's next for Scope 3? Our first priority will continue to be emissions reduction, working with our suppliers to both encourage and help them to reduce their footprint, supporting our employees on their net-zero journey, developing renewables offers for home supply, electric vehicle offers, and delivering EV charging solutions at our corporate sites. In addition to these actions, we're reviewing our reporting boundary to increase the emission sources that we capture. We'll be setting embodied carbon targets for construction and refurbishments, assessing the nature impact of our construction work, and implementing circularity principles, all key to achieving net zero. As we expand our supply chain reporting boundary, we intend to incorporate these additional sources into our emissions reduction targets. Carbon offsets. So look, our first priority is absolutely to measure and reduce emissions. I've spoken about a number of our initiatives today which span the carbon hierarchy. We have also, however, continued to obtain the Australian Government's Climate Active certification for our operations since 2012. Under this standard, we offset our residual operational emissions with eligible carbon credits. We're planning to continue our support of this standard as it evolves. We believe it's essential to participate in the carbon market, as it plays an important role in the world's net zero aims. We're conscious of the quality, price, and supply challenges involved in meeting our offsetting commitment. It's probably fair to say it's not a smooth sailing space, but we're actively working through options to mitigate these. We plan to support our suppliers and customers to manage these same risks, as well as leverage the commercial opportunities that there are in this space. I'm happy to take any questions at the end of the presentation, and in the meantime, I'll pass to Al. Thanks, Ceri. Today, I would like to bring alive Westpac Institutional Bank's approach to transition plans and then use the oil and gas sector as an example of our net zero sectoral approach. I've worked for Westpac for 31 years, mainly in client relationship banking in both the business bank and the institutional bank. We know we're at our best when we are proactive with our clients and matching our banking skills and industry understanding to help support our clients. As I shared at the WIB market update, we run four industry teams that report through to me. All our bankers are aligned to industry to ensure that we have the right client sectors, drivers, and risks understood. Our focus on sustainability and supporting our clients in their transition plan to net zero is led by our bankers and industry teams, supported by internal ESG specialists, and selectively, with the help of external experts. As Anthony shared with you, our aim is to partner with our clients to help create better futures together. We are embedding sustainability into how we run our business. This has accelerated over the last few years, especially as our bankers have led the work on our NZBA sector targets. We are integrating sustainability into our strategy, decision-making, lending, and risk management. For us, this represents good business and enables us to grow safely and sustainably. Understanding our clients' transition plan is key to the aspiration to be the leading relationship bank. Our focus is to understand individual clients' approach, their opportunities, their challenges, and how we can help and support them going forward. 12 months ago, we began a process to understand the transition plans of our clients. We reviewed other frameworks, such as Climate Action 100+ and GFANZ's guidance, to identify common themes and develop our own framework. Our framework has 5 core elements: targets, strategies, capital allocation, reporting, and governance. The challenge was to balance the core themes and the number of questions. For example, enough questions to understand targets, emission reduction activities, governance. However, not so many questions as to stifle engagement. We've piloted this framework with 20 Australian and New Zealand clients across the most emission-intensive sectors. A few of our key observations: Most public companies have short- and long-term targets covering Scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, there is a varying robustness and depth of the strategy alignment behind the targets. Many private companies are at early stage in disclosing emissions, emissions data, targets, or reductions initiatives. Clients across a number of emission-intensive sectors have made good progress. There is a lot of work going on to solve the uncertainty on the technology issues of electrifications, fuel substitutions, such as hydrogen. The measurement of Scope 3 emissions has proven challenging for clients across most sectors, as is the ability to influence downstream emissions. My expectation is transition frameworks will continue to evolve. We will be using the feedback from our pilot, as well as some of the more recently released frameworks, such as the Transition Plan Taskforce from the U.K., to keep enhancing our framework. Both the Australian and New Zealand governments are planning to release their guidance on transition plans over the next year. We will need to continue to remain nimble to ensure we keep within the broader boundaries of these national recommendations. To accelerate the energy transition, we have to take into account the dynamics of demand and supply. Demand for oil and gas will only fall as electrification accelerates, coupled with the improvement in battery development and commercialization of technologies like hydrogen. If oil and gas supply reduces in advance of these activities, there are implications for the energy security, productivity, and cost of living. Our commitment is to reduce our absolute emissions from upstream oil and gas by 23% by 2030. In FY 2022, we already reduced this by 18% compared to the 2021 baseline. Our upstream oil and gas portfolio is weighted towards natural gas, with approximately 82% being natural gas clients. It is widely agreed by the IEA and other independent parties that natural gas will be required for many years, and even in the net zero world. The area of uncertainty is when oil and gas demand will peak, and then the trajectory to 2050. To ensure that there is no energy gap, we agree with the recent comments from the IEA that any reduction in oil and gas supply needs to be driven by new renewables joining the grid and electrification activities continuing at pace. We have been focused on the energy sector for a number of years. This is reflected by the fact that we have the largest lender to greenfield renewable energy projects for the last five years, and 84% of our electricity generation exposure is to renewable energy. While we are seeing a range of transition plan maturity in our discussions with oil and gas clients, there is clear progress on their direct emission reduction and planning for the transition away from hydrocarbons. We are seeing a range of Scope 3 targets emerge, as well as enhanced data collection measurements. However, the impact on Scope 3 emissions is a big challenge. Most clients are developing strategies for low and zero carbon energy solutions by investing in the feasibility or constructions of renewables, hydrogen, carbon capture, and ammonium projects. To accelerate the speed of transition, there are a range of key initiatives that we think need to be fast-tracked even more. New transmissions. This is required to move the electricity from the areas suitable for renewable electricity to major centers where it'll be used. Storage capacity. This is critical to ensure we have the availability of electricity on demand alongside renewables. The increased availability of critical minerals for the manufacturing of solar, wind farm, batteries, and alongside renewables. Critically, a workforce that has the skills for new technologies will be essential to an energy-efficient transition. In closing, we are committed to supporting the energy transition. This year, we'll be continuing our engagement with our corporate upstream oil and gas clients to understand their progress to support the transition. We will also continue to support our clients by funding the technology and solutions required to decarbonize the energy system. Thank you, and I will now pass to Peter. ... Good morning, everyone. I'm Peta Ward, National General Manager for Regional and Agribusiness. I'm based in Toowoomba, Queensland, and my role is to look after agribusiness and regional commercial customers right across Australia. In addition to this, I'm also a fourth-generation farmer from southwestern Queensland. I've been with Westpac for 16 years, and the conversations with our customers have always been about sustainability, profitability, farming through the cycles, and succession planning. In more recent times, a new topic of ESG has come to the forefront, and the impact this will have, whether it's through animal welfare, adapting to a changing climate, or long-term planning about how to position their businesses for success in a net zero future. The ag sector is the pillar of the Australian economy and the lifeblood of many regional and rural communities, but it's also a significant source of emissions, predominantly stemming from livestock, representing around 15% of Australia's national emissions inventory. Our portfolio is around AUD 11 billion of lending exposure and is one of the key growth industries for the bank. The commodity mix is broadly representative of the Australian ag sector, with customers from every commodity and growing region, including a strong focus on grain, beef, sheep, and dairy. From an emissions perspective, agriculture represents roughly a quarter of Westpac Group's financed emissions. Over 80% of this comes from livestock. But agriculture is also a major source of renewables through carbon sequestration. We have great customers that have managed their properties for generations, preserving soil, water, and vegetation to maximize productivity and ensure a sustainable operation for generations to come. It's a critical sector and one that we are fully committed to supporting. This month, we announced our new net zero targets for agriculture, including separate targets for both Australia and New Zealand. This approach was mainly driven by the different commodity profiles and legislative environments in each country. Today, I'll speak mainly to the Australian context. To begin, net zero target setting for ag was not easy. But in keeping with our climate commitments and a commitment to truly supporting our customers' transition, we felt it was important to take this first step and send a signal that this was genuine focus area for the bank, and that we intended to lean in with customers to help solve. We engaged extensively with customers, industry groups, and government over the past year to ensure the path and roadmap to net zero was aligned and in step with those industry plans and actions. We also took an approach consistent with supply chain expectations, processors, wholesalers, retailers, and our export markets, to come up with a coherent and coordinated approach. Australia's ag sector has been a global leader on sustainability for some time. We boast some of the lowest emissions intensities compared to other producing nations, and our customers and industry groups are well advanced in their thinking and stewardship of country. These are portfolio targets that we have developed using the best available data, such as ABARES production data from the federal government and emissions factors to help estimate our customers' emissions footprint. Our focus now will be on helping our customer, customers identify credible industry tools and calculators to pivot towards more of a bottom-up farm level data. This will help improve accuracy, but also empower our customers as they consider available decarbonization actions. As part of our target setting and in keeping with our chosen pathway, SBTi FLAG, we've also committed to no deforestation, meaning no conversion of natural forest to agricultural land from the thirty-first of December, 2025. This applies to customers in scope of the targets being beef, sheep, and dairy. We've been actively engaging with customers in places such as Queensland and Tasmania to explain our no deforestation position and what it means practically on the ground for their businesses. Our position does not apply to areas already used for agriculture, such as management of regrowth on grazing land. It's about stopping the conversion and clearing of natural forest areas, consistent with how vegetation is protected already in most states. While preserving natural forest and soils is a critical part of the removal story, our targets are mainly focused on our customers' operational emissions, the things they are doing inside the farm gate, and it's that innovation and practice change that I'm most excited to share with you. The decarbonization pathway for red meat, beef and sheep, is different to dairy. We're fortunate to have progressive and well-organized industry groups in both Meat and Livestock Australia and Dairy Australia, with great engagement from producers who are trialing new tech and participating in studies to help scale solutions and guidance for the sector. As I travel around Australia, sitting at kitchen tables, it never ceases to amaze me how innovative and focused our customers are... Have I mentioned we have really great customers? Whether it's dairy producers in South Australia installing state-of-the-art solar-powered rotary milking sheds to minimize energy use while maximizing productivity, or producers in Tasmania managing pasture, water, and drainage to maximize soil carbon, with several dairies assessed as carbon neutral already at the farm level. We're seeing genetic selection of stock for greater feed conversion and less methane emissions in both beef and dairy. Feed sheds are becoming more popular so that cows can be fed off the paddocks and supplements included in the feed, or feeding more grain, which results in less methane. Regenerative ag and planting of different pasture species is also another method of increasing the soil carbon, and therefore, improving water retention in the soils, again, improving productivity. You may have detected a common theme here: emissions reduction and productivity go hand in hand. Our net zero targets include aggressive growth assumptions. We are backing our customers and are fully committed to supporting their growth story. Our customers understand the relationship between sustainable land management and productivity, and ultimately, profitability. They've done this for generations, and as a long-term banking partner, we'll continue to support their businesses. We heard a great line the other day: there is no silver bullet for ag. It's a silver buckshot. Not one single initiative, but many that, in aggregate, will move the needle. We're starting that journey with our customers now, and I look forward to sharing updates as we progress. Thank you. I'll now hand over to Lisa. Good morning, everyone. My name's Lisa Pogonoski, and I've been helping customers within the Westpac Group for 30 years. Following on from Peta, I want to talk to you about another way we're working with our customers that is also critical to our sustainability strategy, supporting customers experiencing vulnerability, hardship, and disaster. My team in Customer Solutions help our customers in some of their most critical moments, including dealing with the loss of a loved one, financial hardship, and other situations where they may be more vulnerable. The team also responds to complaints. Our Customer and Business Assist team supports customers through hardship in a range of ways. Our solution toolkit is extensive and evolves with the changing economic environment. The rising cost of living is having a broad impact across renters, mortgage holders, and retirees, and we're seeing that in our interaction with customers. While some customers are cutting back on spending on holidays, big household items, or eating out and entertainment, others are looking at ways to increase their income with extra hours, as well as with second jobs. In FY 2023, we received 210,000 calls to our hardship assist phone lines from customers wanting to talk to us about their financial situation. In October alone, we received 18,700 calls, and a third of those customers need our help right now. We receive around 6,500 hardship applications per month. We currently have 13,000 customers in hardship arrangements. Our goal is to get customers back to a healthy financial position. We aim to connect with customers well before they get into collections and understand their issues and offer appropriate hardship solutions. We have a toolkit that our staff use with customers that focuses on helping each individual customer based on their financial situation and circumstances. So the solutions may include payment deferrals or reduced payments, assistance for customer-led property sales, relocation support, or support to assist customers secure new permanent accommodation, or suspending loan repayments in situations such as emergencies, like natural disasters. We focus on getting the balance right between the appropriate time for financial hardship recovery, compared to the right time to sell and preserving equity. Relocation support is always available to customers to assist them in securing new permanent accommodation. Our preference is always to support customers with a sale, either on their own or through agents, because acting early typically gives customers a much better equity outcome. This approach is supported by financial counseling sector and our Customer Advocate. I'd like to illustrate this with an example with our customer, Andrew. Andrew is a long-standing customer, and in 2013, purchased a property that would become his primary place of residence. He had a healthy equity position at the time. He was employed full-time, working in aged care, but he struggled obtaining a permanent employment contract. In 2015, Andrew found himself in a period of long-term unemployment and a position where his home loan fell significantly behind. Over an extended period of time, my assist team supported Andrew with financial hardship, long-term payment arrangements, and periods of forbearance for him to ready the property for sale. Regardless of this, Andrew was unable to reach a recoverable position and return to the workforce in a full-time capacity. Struggling to manage his financial responsibilities, Andrew became disengaged from us, and ultimately, the matter was referred to our Compassionate Recoveries team to case manage. After a dozen unsuccessful attempts to engage Andrew via phone, email, and home visits, our case manager, Sam, finally managed to contact Andrew, and we started working with him on a way forward. Sam explained to Andrew that he had concerns that the property's strong equity position was being eroded as regular repayments were not being made. Further options were provided to Andrew, including refinance, voluntary surrendering the property, or self-sale. Andrew shared with Sam that he wanted to self-sell, but there was electrical work, general tidying, and recarpeting required. With the assistance from our business partners, the team was able to provide the financial support to enable Andrew to complete the renovations and have the property listed for sale. As the property presented beautifully, Andrew had accepted a sales offer within 10 days of the property being on the market. Post-settlement, Andrew contacted us to thank us for the support the team had provided to him. He advised he was overjoyed with the that he had the use of the surplus funds from the property sale to pay out his other unsecured debt, and he downsized, putting an all-cash offer on a small two-bedroom house located one back, one street back from his favorite beach. He was extremely thankful to be able to focus on creating a new home without the ongoing burden of owing money. So this example really shows the care and many actions we can take across our hardship cases, working with customers, often across many years, to ensure the best outcome. Andrew was a long-standing customer, and due to the support provided in a time of need, continues to be a customer in the future. The support that my team provide in good times and in bad, doesn't just strengthen the relationship customers like Andrew have with Westpac, it can truly change their lives. Thank you. I'll hand back to Anthony. That completes, if you will, the formal presentation, part of the session. What we wanted to do now is just make the team available in terms of a bit of a Q&A session. Very much the spirit here is just to give you access to the people who are day in, day out, doing the doing in relation to sustainability. But we're also going to have Siobhan Toohill, who's the Chief Sustainability Officer for Westpac, join us as well. You know, Siobhan has been a remarkable... is a remarkable leader, is a real subject matter leadership expert here within the bank, and so obviously, if there's any really, really tough questions, we'll have to hand them over to Siobhan. But you heard us today talking about what we're trying to really send the message, which is, we want sustainability, it's integrated into how the bank operates. It's the way we are, it's the way we want to be positioned. And we talked a little bit today, a subset of sustainability being we're going to reduce our emissions, we're going to support customers as they transition to net zero, and we're going to support customers in this cost of living challenge that we're all navigating. But that's just a component of the sustainability agenda at Westpac, but the message is, it's part of how we operate. We're embedding it in day-to-day operations, decision-making, et cetera. So we'll now sort of run a Q&A session, and we'll invite Justin to also help us triage the questions in the right way. So thank you. Thanks, Anthony, Anthony. The good news is we've got lots of people online, so a reminder for those online, the instructions to ask a question are with your invitation. We'll start with the room first. To help the people online and for the recording, if you can just state your name and your affiliation, would be great. So when we're ready. We've got one down the front here. Thank you. Thank you. Just a comment, compliment to start. I arrived early this morning and had a number of interactions with Westpac people, finding my way here and them coming to speak to me while I was waiting outside, and they were all very helpful and friendly, so thanks for that. Good to see the presentations from various senior people across the business who have got responsibility in achieving the sustainability strategy, and that was also very interesting. Thanks. My question is the costs of meeting your sustainability targets. I know Westpac need to spend a significant amount of money to advance in the technology area, and so interested in what the costs are in this. I should have introduced myself. I'm Carol Limmer from the Australian Shareholders' Association. Thank you. Thanks, Carol. Well, maybe on the technology, we'll, we'll leave that for, maybe take that offline and leave that for another part. But in terms of the sustainability element of the question? Well, very much it's part of how we run the bank, it's the way we're positioning it. That's the way we run it. So the investment that's needed to ensure that, for example, the bankers have the tools they need, or they have the training they need, or that we have the tools to measure what might be the emissions of our customers, that's all part of our investment plan, and so it's all loaded into and sequenced in the right way to ensure that we invest in what we need to do, to make sure that the way we operate meets that standard we've set ourselves. So, it's embedded in our investment program. Certainly, as we make decisions around what we'll invest in, how we'll ensure that we can deliver a sustainable outcome, is very much part of the decision-making in the choice of the investments we'll make or the partners we'll choose to work with. Emma Pringle, Maple-Brown Abbott. Al, I've got a question for you, following on the kind of engagement framework that you've got with customers, and obviously, there's the sector-based targets that are kind of all hand in hand. Can you tell us a little bit around how that then... like, what the outcome is of the engagement, and how that impacts, or if it does impact the lending decisions across institutional and corporate clients? Yep. Thank you. So, the stage we're at is, we've been developing our framework, and we've got some very clear metrics, the very clear, criteria that we have, the five criteria that I mentioned. Then what we do is, we, do a fair bit of desktop analysis and then have a conversation with the clients, 'cause really, at this stage, it's very much about, having the conversations, the clients learning, and us learning from them on their plans. So, at, at this stage, we don't look, at this stage, we don't specifically sort of score it and work through, it's just at the, the learning phase. But, as I said earlier, I think that's going to evolve over the next period substantially, and I want my bankers to lead it with our clients, because it's got to be their plan that we support them on, and that's the most important thing to me. ... Sorry. Have you modeled the revenue impact of the sector-based decarbonization plans? And, you know, I guess I'm kind of very supportive of the decarbonization commitments, but also really curious to know how that's going to impact revenue flows and, and kind of what the trade-off is, between now and 2030 and onwards. So we don't specifically model the climate change impacts. We do model the sectors, and we look at where we see the growth opportunities in the sector, and we're very positive with the transition. We look at the renewables and the growth we've had there, where, as I mentioned earlier, with our support with the electricity at 84%, there's a heck of a lot of business going on. At the market update, I also shared that it's pretty competitive in the renewables space. So there's a... You know, the banks are well bid on deals, and that that's part of a cycle we'll go through, where you know, deals will be competitive, and you know, we're okay with that. We're up for that, and we'll just have to look across our portfolio. But, I'm overwhelmingly positive in the outlook from our point of view of how we look at our portfolio. Well, just a thing to add to it. You know, it's the fact that everybody everywhere will have to change and adjust the way they operate. They'll have to invest in new ways of operating, invest in new ways of producing, distributing, and so that just means there's a lot of change. That's going to require a lot of investment, and it requires therefore a lot of financial support. And so it's actually... Yes, there'll be some parts where it might reduce, but it's overwhelmed by the amount of investment opportunity and business that I think is available in the transition over the next 20 years. There's more questions in the room. Hi, it's Blake from Touchstone. I'm just interested, again, this is probably for Al. I'm just interested how you're thinking about transition plans for your customers in terms of, number one, carbon offsets, what your thoughts are on, on the use of carbon offsets to reach, targets. And, and secondly, you, you know, certain sectors, like Powergen, for example, relies on, a planning which may be reversed because of changes to government regulations. So how your thoughts are around, around that when it comes to looking at transition plans for your customers? Well, I think the answer is in the question really. We're learning a lot. You know, that's why we've embarked on a process of setting out a framework and working through with our clients. And the one thing I've learned over the last period with climate change, and we've been working really hard on this, is expect the unexpected and expect things to change and evolve, and that's the mindset we're bringing with our bankers. So the nub of your question is we've got to work with clients. We've got to be, you know, eyes wide open and ears open to look at how we support them. And I think you had a question on carbon offsets as well? Offset, yeah. Yeah, they play a role, but it's not something we're looking for it to be substantial. But we can see for some sectors that's going to be important, you know, particularly in some of the heavy emission sectors. But we're actually really looking at what the client's strategies are and what they're doing, particularly across obviously scope one, two, and three. Some of your competitors are being a little more forward about scoring transition plans and potentially allocating capital away from customers where transition plans aren't being met. Is that something you envisage going forward? I can't really comment on competitors, but you know, it's early days if you're starting to do that, early days in the conversations. We're finding when we're out with our clients and the depth of our conversations, and many of them that are multi-banked, are saying, "Gee, this is the first conversation we've really had at that sort of level of asking these questions," and helping understand where we're coming from a bank. So a big part of what I've asked my bankers to do is to sort of educate clients of, you know, what is our NZBA sign up, why have we done that, how are we thinking about things? And there's a real thirst for knowledge. So, I'd be, you know, interested that people are starting to allocate capital in this early stage. You know, ours is a process of strong engagement with our clients and deep expertise, where we really appreciate that we will learn from clients and work with them going forward. Yeah. Hi, Bruce Rigby from China Everbright Bank, next door neighbors in Tower One. I'm interested in the capacity investment scheme and the attitude of the bank towards that. I mean, you mentioned it in your opening comments, I think. Is there a risk here that there'll actually be a distortion in the market where effectively sub-economic projects are going to get up? And we know at the moment, equity's staring down, diminishing returns in this sector, and it's going to actually have an adverse impact, potentially, on what is already a tricky investment decision for equity in this sector. It's a really good question. I completely agree that that's a risk to be wary of, but I think what the market currently lacks prior to that announcement is absolute certainty and clarity on the commitment to build the renewable power capacity we need to achieve the emissions targets that the country has set for itself. And so there's certainly implementation, and there might be some risks, as you've identified. I think, you know, as the government has demonstrated since it arrived, it's very focused on: How do we make sure that this gets done? How do we make sure and we facilitate that this will get done? So they've been tremendous to engage with and great listeners in terms of how might it be executed. But if I just come back to the most important point, which is they've given everybody absolute clarity that they will help ensure that the renewable power build-out will be realized. They'll ensure that the underwrite capacity is provided to the market, and that will allow us to make decisions to support and invest. ... Hi there. My name is Amy D'Eugenio. I'm a sustainability director from Federated Hermes EOS. Thank you very much for your presentations. They were all really good, and I think a big theme that came through was the customer focus, which is very pleasing to hear. I've heard a couple of times here as well today, just in terms of transparency around how you're assessing the customer transition plans, we would encourage that as well. It would be good to understand how you're doing that, how they compare against one another, and perhaps in the future, looking at some data to show kind of what you're looking at there. So, I'll echo some others in the room. But also I've heard a lot about you're really sort of trying to understand, you're learning along the way with the customers. It makes perfect sense. This is a piloting phase. I was just wondering, what are you thinking in terms of transition plans for all of your customers, or are the transition plans just going to be applied to the new loans? Thank you. Why don't I take that? I mean, I think you're absolutely spot on about something, which I think we anticipate and are working on the basis that all of our customers, wherever they are, large, medium, or small, will ultimately have to have some form of transition plan or a business that aligns with the transition that the community and the economy needs to undertake. So, it's something that, while it's quite an acute debate and work effort at the moment in the oil and gas space, we should expect in our planning and working on the basis that almost every single customer, particularly large, medium, and small business, will have to have some form of plan in time. And I think you could say that you can see a future where, unless you've got a plan that facilitates and supports and contributes to transition and is aligned with transition, it'll be hard to raise money. It'll be hard to get support. And so it's really important, therefore, that over the next X number of years, we're working with all of our customers on their transition plans. I think just to add to that, we've we've been building out our framework. In our recent disclosures, we've talked about the piloting work that we've undertaken. We've built that pilot, referencing work that's been done by Climate Action 100, and we've now been looking at the U.K. Transition Pathways Taskforce work, as we formalize that transition planning framework for our organization. And of course, our primary focus is around our emissions intensive customers and sectors, but also importantly for us, working through what are the different criteria that we need to be engaging our customers on. And so rather than taking simply a scoring approach, really, it's about looking at each of those criteria and engaging customers and really seeing how they're making progress against each of those criteria. As l mentioned, it really is about the conversation and really working and supporting customers with that transition process. Any more questions in the room? I know we've just passed 10. Oh, we've got one more down here, but we'll keep going for those online, if you can stay with us for a few minutes to answer your questions. Hi, Maddy Dwyer from Paradice. I had a question probably for you, Lisa. Appreciate that you discussed the specific customer hardship measures, but perhaps you could talk through at a higher level how the bank is managing its broader social license during this cost of living crisis for many. You know, how are you more deeply understanding the community sentiment and potential for backlash? Yeah, so we work very closely with consumer advocate groups and have several sessions with them around what they're seeing through their customers. And we have a very open dialogue with those groups to provide us feedback as to what the community sector is seeing, but also to be able to escalate any particular concerns with Westpac customers or Westpac Group customers through that. So it is, it's definitely an ongoing conversation, and some of those groups are seeing a very acute lens from customers that we may not be seeing through our hardship phone line. So it's very important for us to understand where those particularly vulnerable customers may be impacted in the current environment. I'll have another go. This one's for Lisa. Interested... I grew up in the Downs, too, by the way, so you know, born in Pittsworth. Interested in some of the new ventures that are starting to emerge around either, you know, graziers, landowners, farmers being paid to retain native bushland or getting, indeed, revegetating land. I'm wondering if it's—I know it's early stage, but are you seeing opportunities in that space for the bank also to support those kind of ventures? And importantly, what are you hearing from the graziers and the, you know, the people across the region about this as a potential new revenue opportunity for their operations? Yeah, absolutely. So we are definitely having more conversations with our customers around this. What we are talking to them about right here and now is, you know, understand the emissions on your farm. So at the moment, you know, there's some tools out there. They're in their early stages, and customers are, you know, are trying to seek and understand exactly how many emissions are coming from, you know, from their production, and then also understanding what they might need, because they may have a cattle operation over here, so they actually might need to be able to offset on their own farm so that they... But once they've understood that, then they're absolutely engaging with us and others to, to then potentially enter into projects. So as long as they're going in with the right advice, you know, we're absolutely supportive of that. And we also see it as, you know, potentially another income stream that helps to drought-proof their business and, you know, has that continual income stream for the future. So yeah, my farm's at Felton, so I know Pittsworth very well. ... we might move to online questions. So first question comes from David Gallagher. "As Westpac is one of the largest issuers and arrangers of Aussie dollar debt, Westpac also has a large loan book in the Aussie market. However, unlike some both local and offshore banks, we don't have any green, sustainable or social bonds in the local market. Acknowledging that, we have relatively two relatively small Euro dollar bonds. Does Westpac have any plans to support our own local green bond market going forward? Look, absolutely, and we're actively involved in it. And so we're very active in the local bond market, and we have real aspirations for the expansion of the local bond market, and green, social, sustainability-linked bonds is very much part of our business and part of our business plan. So actually, David, I was a little bit surprised that you think it's quite small and that we're not active in it. In fact, I'd say that's not correct. We believe we're very actively in it. I would say that I'd love to see the market much larger. I'd love to see the Australian bond market much larger. And so, but I'd sort of like to take that offline because I sort of disagree with the view that we're not active in it. But, let's follow up on that. I think just to add also, we've published a sustainable finance framework. So we've now clearly set out the criteria for both lending and also bond facilitation around what we mean by climate transition and social finance as well. Our next question's from Carlos Castillo: "So regarding the nature positive commitment and increasing awareness of nature risks, have you assessed what proportion of existing loans has had the nature risks underestimated, such as the loans would not have been made or were mispriced? Is the nature positive commitment such that loans will still be made to business having a detrimental impact on nature, as long as there are sufficient offset in other areas of the customer base? So I'm going to throw that one to Siobhan. Carlos, there's a huge amount in that question. Yeah. And it's so formative where we are, but why don't we leave it to the absolute expert here, Siobhan? Sure. So, we have set out our natural capital position statement, and really, this sets out the areas that we're seeking to understand. So we're seeking to understand deforestation, regenerative farming practices, known nature loss, understanding what that means, and also understanding the emergence of natural capital markets. So really, we're basically saying that this is an important area for us. We have done some disclosures already. We've identified the top 10 sectors that are most impacted by nature and those that are most dependent on nature as well. But this is an ongoing piece of work for us, and we've set out that this is an important focus, so you'll hear more from us in the future. We've got some more questions online that are coming through. So this is from David Whittaker: "In order to be a nature positive bank, is it sufficient to only have regard to nature positive outcomes? Yeah, so I think I've just answered that question. This is an ongoing area of focus for us. So we've set out those four areas of focus, and build our disclosures, in line with the emergence of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. We're back to Carlos again: "So why wait until the end of 2025 to implement the no deforestation target, giving customers a window to clear as much land as they want to before? What sort of customers are not in scope of the targets? Well, I think it's appropriate when we put a position forward that we give everyone a chance to understand it. More importantly, it's about now working with our customers to make sure that they know the standard we need reached, to be reached, and working with them to make sure that it's not going to be impractical or impossible, and really making sure that we've got the right buy-in from our customers, from industry bodies and government. So, I think it's entirely appropriate to set a timeline and give everyone a chance to work to that timeline, so that when we do go live, we've earned the right, if you will, to go live at that moment in time. We've got a couple of questions from Suelyn Stubbs. So the first one: "What's the timeline for measuring and reporting on facilitated emissions? Will this be incorporated into your net zero commitments? So I'll take that one. So, facilitated emissions, certainly our intent is to take into account facilitated emissions as part of our Net Zero Banking Alliance commitments. However, it's important that we have the right methodology. So we're waiting for an entity called PCAF that we expect will be developing a methodology, and then we'll take on board facilitated emissions in line with our NZBA commitments as that comes through, and we expect that will happen in the near term. The next one relates to, if we can sort of scroll down a bit. I've missed Suelyn's next one. It relates to financed emissions. Across the sectors, financed emissions targets, the oil and gas, thermal coal, iron and steel, and transport, have highlighted which climate scenarios they're adopting. However, there isn't sufficient disclosure on the degree to which those targets are aligned to those pathways, similar to the disclosure of power, cement, and aviation. Look, there's a lot in that question. Yeah. I'm not sure I really understand exactly what you're driving at, Suelyn, but however, you know, the idea of making sure that we've got the right emissions targets aligned with the right scientifically backed pathways, where we have a methodology and a transparency such that we can monitor and measure and work with the customer on the delivery on those targets, that's pretty important to us. But I'm sort of sensing there's a little bit more into your question that it's hard to draw out. Perhaps we should take that offline and try to unpack a little bit more what you're going after there. Great. Yeah, so it's a standoff between Carlos and Sue Lin at the moment. So we're back to Carlos. They're asking very detailed questions- Uh, yeah ... which, Which is great. might deserve a Yeah -a one-on-one. A special, special one-on-one. When should we expect the medium-term emissions reduction target for the loan book to be included into senior executive REM structures to increase investor confidence in their likelihood that we'll meet those targets? Well, at the Peter King level and therefore rolls down to me, we already have various ESG targets and, if you will, requirements that we have to solve for, and if we don't, that will impact our remuneration. Could and will we one day have even more detail? Absolutely. As and when the data and the information and the policy and the environment facilitates that, absolutely. But I can tell you right now, compensation is impacted by whether we do or don't deliver on our ESG commitments. The next one from Sue Lin. We're back to Sue Lin, so it relates to the pilot framework that we've outlined. Now that you've completed the pilot framework to, for 20 customers, how are you going to classify customers across their level of maturity? And some of the peers have had a crack at this, as we heard earlier. What governance structures are in place to flag or escalate when a customer falls behind on their transition plan? And what is the approach with customer engagement? Is it a combination of carrot and stick? Are there structures in place to ensure escalations have teeth? I'll make one observation, and in my comments at the start, which is, we've always worked with our customers in relation to their financial plan, and we look at their financial forecasts, and then it may be instances where they're ahead of those forecasts, or it may be instances where they're behind in that forecast, and we engage with them as a result. It's the same with the transition plan. We'll have a transition plan agenda with a set of targets and perhaps a set of interim metrics that we'd like to see realised. And then if they do get there, great. If they don't get there, great, 'cause we will be engaging with them like we have always, in relation to financial plans, we'll be engaging with them on their transition plans. So it's the way I want you to sort of reflect on this is that it's about how we embed it in the way we operate, and so it'll be carbon, cash flow, those kind of things is the way we'll be approaching it. It's part of how we look at and support and work with our customers. Great. So look, we've got a few follow-ups for some of those questions. That exhausts the questions online for the time being. So thanks everyone for your interest. For those in the room, please stay around and meet some of the team, and thank you.