14/03/2007 by Mark Parnell
Greens MLC Mark Parnell has called for Funds SA to stop investing hundreds of millions of dollars of retirement savings of South Australian politicians and bureaucrats in companies that work against government policy.
Funds SA manages the compulsory superannuation funds of all South Australian public servants and politicians. Companies include Altria (the parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris) which receives 0.5%, or $164 million, of the Funds SA international equities portfolio, and US oil giant and climate change sceptic ExxonMobil, which receives 0.7%, or $230 million. Total Funds SA fund assets last year amounted to over $10 billion.
“While SA MPs are debating government bills in parliament to stop the harm caused by smoking and climate change, their own retirement funds are supporting companies that are working in the opposite direction. I think many public servants would be horrified to discover their hard earned money was being invested in companies that directly undermined the work they do,” Mr Parnell said.
Philip Morris promotes itself as the ‘world’s leading international cigarette business outside the US’ with leading brands including Marlboro, Peter Jackson and Virginia Slims.
Exxon Mobil has been consistently funding leading international climate change sceptics including the Competitive Enterprise and the George C Marshall Institutes. On the same day the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) pronounced a more than 90% scientific certainty that climate change is human induced, the British Guardian Newspaper revealed that an ExxonMobil-funded lobby group, the American Enterprise Institute offered scientists and economists $10,000 each to spread doubt about the IPCC report.
“It is completely unacceptable that the South Australian government supports blatantly harmful businesses. Fund members and the wider community should expect consistency between government policy and their investment strategy.
“Right now there are two bills in parliament to try and stop passive smoking in cars and to increase fines for tobacco advertising – yet at the same time MPs are financially benefiting from tobacco sales.
“I wonder if Premier Rann, who regularly declares that climate change is a greater threat to the world than terrorism, is aware his super money helps fund groups that actively discredit the scientific consensus on climate change,” he said.
Last year, Mark Parnell moved an amendment in Parliament to try and force Super SA and Funds SA to offer an ethical superannuation option. This was knocked back by the government.
“Approximately half of Australia's employees are eligible to choose where their super funds go; however, government employees are not. If government employees cannot choose a different fund, at the very least an ethical investment option should be offered to them by their compulsory fund.
“Public servants should be able to choose not to put their money into companies that they don’t agree with,” Mr Parnell said.
Under sustained pressure from the Greens, the ACT government announced this week they would commission a review into the ACT’s investment portfolios.
“The ACT government has announced a review of where their money is invested – we are calling on Treasurer Kevin Foley to do the same.
“At the very least, Funds SA should immediately pull all funds out of Altria and ExonMobil, and offer an ethical choice for public sector employees.
“$10 billion is an incredibly large amount of money – I believe it should be invested in companies that work towards better outcomes for society, not against it,” Mr Parnell said.
Calculations:
Funds SA 2006 Annual Report -
International equities: $3,283 million (as at 30 June 2006)
www.supersa.sa.gov.au/investments/funds_sa_top_sharholdings.html
Exxon Mobil Corp 0.7% = $230 million
Altria Group Inc 0.5% = $164 million
www.markparnell.org.au/campaign_prn.php?campaignn=15
www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/super-sa-socially-responsible-investment-option.html
No comments:
Post a Comment