$16m financial literacy campaign
Paul Clitheroe, chair of the Financial Literacy Foundation, announced that a $16 million Federal Government grant will be used to fund a public education campaign using television, radio and print media.
While the launch date has not been formalised, Clitheroe hopes to begin the campaign in March 2006.
Speaking at the Association of Financial Services Educators' Annual Conference, Clitheroe said: “What we are going to try and do, with your help, is get people in contact with their money. We are talking a powerful, long-term campaign”.
“Cabinet was very keen on a grim reaper campaign ‘if you don’t save, you’ll be buggered’. But fear in my opinion is not a particularly good piece of behavioural psychology when it comes to engaging people with their money.”
He added that the campaign would be more positive, but also realistic. “I watched with interest the AMP ads from a few years ago… but in my view that was overly aspirational because it had the old bloke looking at the beach house, which is probably worth a million dollars or more. People don’t actually think they are going to own a one or two million dollar beach house.
“We want to do the kind of campaign that shows that success comes from small steps. If someone’s got a $1,000 credit card debt that they can’t get rid of, if you can talk to them and counsel them, and over a year they get rid of that debt, they feel success.”
Despite the government’s desire to launch the campaign this year, Clitheroe said an action plan needed to be formalised before public education began. He said: “We need to work out what the heck at the end of the ad we tell Australians to do.”
With a commitment from both the Federal Government and opposition to provide the Foundation with long-term funding, 18 employees have now been hired on a permanent basis for the Canberra headquarters, headed by general manager Peter McCrae. All board members are unpaid for their work.
While the Foundation is not permitted to provide grants to educational bodies using government funding, it hopes to set up a separate grant-making facility, which will be funded by donations from private institutions.
“A number of large institutions have already offered between $1 million and $5 million dollars. And to their credit, I didn’t even ask for it, and they have said they don’t even want their name on the brochures,” said Clitheroe.
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