Speaking at the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds on the Gold Coast yesterday, Cbus chief executive David Atkin said Cbus takes a “mainstream” environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach by working with external fund managers, taking part in corporate engagement and casting proxy votes.
But Cbus also has a framework in place for instances where engagement has either failed or is “not practical” and continued investment poses “unacceptable reputation risk” to Cbus, said Mr Atkin.
The industry fund divested its holdings in weapons manufacturing and landmines two years ago, and announced its divestment from tobacco in September last year.
Mr Atkin said Cbus is currently investigating the extent to which it invests in “companies that are still producing asbestos”.
“Asbestos in our industry is particularly real and evident in terms of the health outcomes for our members,” he said.
“There are companies that are still operating using asbestos in their product range and are profiteering from it and we’re not comfortable with that,” said Mr Atkin.
“We’re in the process of evaluating that in our investments and then we’ll work through whether it’s possible to divest. It’s not a decision we’ve made, but that’s the next line of inquiry because we think that’s particularly relevant to our membership demographic,” he said.
Mr Atkin spoke alongside Dr Bronwyn King, who is a radiation oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
Ms King has made it her personal mission to reduce what she says is the $8.5 billion in Australian superannuation savings that are invested in tobacco companies.
The vast majority of this investment is “incidental” and comes about through super funds acquiring international equities via indices, she said.
“About four years ago I accidentally discovered that a small portion of my money was being invested in the tobacco industry via my super investments,” she said.
“I felt it was a bad fit for Australia and Australians in general, given our great record of tobacco control over the years,” said Ms King.
“So I started to engage with various super funds, and many super funds have now been through this process, have looked at the issue, and have gone ahead with tobacco divestment,” she said.
Fifteen superannuation funds have now gone ahead with tobacco divestment “to the tune of $1.2 billion”, said Ms King.
There are also superannuation funds that do not invest in tobacco, including Local Government Super, Christian Super and Catholic Super, she said – all of which either divested more than 10 years ago or never held the exposure.
