Duncan Paterson, chief executive of environment, social and governance (ESG) research house CAER (Corporate Analysis, Enhanced Responsibility), said the superannuation industry is not prepared for the requirement to disclose each individual investment holding from 1 July 2014.
Superannuation funds will have to think very carefully about the way they manage communications with their members in the future, Mr Paterson said, noting the ‘Super Activist’ campaign conducted by the Wilderness Society, which targeted superannuation funds holding shares in Tasmanian logging giant Gunns, as well as more recent campaigns targeting investments in tobacco and weapons manufacture.
The comments came following concerns by superannuation groups that the requirement to provide thousands of lines of data about specific individual investment holdings would lead to lobby groups and activists “trawling through” funds’ investments.
But Mr Paterson dismissed concerns that the requirement to list specific investments on superannuation fund websites would lead to more attention from lobby groups.
“It’s not going to create a motivation for lobby groups to go through their holdings; the lobby groups can already do that if they’re determined enough,” he said. “What [funds] need to do is make sure that they actually have considered these issues,” he said.
“Do they have systems and policies in place to communicate accurately with their stakeholders when the questions inevitably are raised, rather than complaining about the potential for ‘inconvenient’ questions to be asked?”
