Events & News

A number of large Australian investor and business groups have expressed serious concerns that the WA Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill 2021 tabled on Tuesday 16 November will fail to make a meaningful change in cultural heritage protection and is insufficient for protecting the invaluable cultural heritage of Australia’s First Nations people and our nation. The Dhawura Ngilan Business and Investor Initiative – led by the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance in partnership with Global Compact Network Australia (GCNA), and the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) – together with the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) – have expressed strong criticism with the Bill which passed the Lower House yesterday. “It is critical that any new heritage protection legislation takes on board the lessons learned from the tragic destruction of the Juukan Gorge, so that such harm doesn’t occur again. This Bill falls far short of providing that confidence,” said Cath Brokenborough, Executive Lead, First Nations engagement, Lendlease and Chair of the Dhawura Ngilan Business and Investor Initiative. “In the wake of Juukan Gorge, investors have stated unequivocally that businesses and legislators need to ensure comprehensive protection of cultural heritage. Upon review of this Bill, we remain concerned that this protection has not been sufficiently strengthened, and investors will continue to see Western Australia as having elevated risks of the type seen in the tragic destruction of Juukan Gorge” said RIAA CEO Simon O’Connor.

The Australian Government’s announcement that superannuation funds will be required to disclose their holdings from 31 March 2022 has been welcomed by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA). Under the new regulations, super funds will be required to disclose information about the identity, value and weightings of their investments, with portfolio holdings disclosure to occur every six months thereafter. “RIAA is supportive of and welcomes the introduction of mandatory portfolio holdings disclosure for super funds. We have advocated for many years that portfolio holdings disclosure is a critical element of transparency and accountability for super fund members and beneficiaries,” said RIAA CEO Simon O’Connor. “Disappointingly though, super funds will not be required to disclose the holdings of funds that are managed externally. Given almost three-quarters of super funds use external managers for over 90% of their assets, we would have expected the requirements to include these underlying holdings.”

Ministry for the Environment (MfE) on Te hau mārohi ki anamata - Transitioning to a low-emissions and climate-resilient future, aka Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP).

Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs inquiry: How the corporate sector establishes models of best practice to foster better engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers.

Draft Standard from The External Reporting Board (XRB) to frame how New Zealand investors and large publicly listed companies will disclose their climate change risks, under new laws set to take effect in 2022. First consultation on Governance and Risk Management.

The Australian Government’s announcement that the country will target net zero emissions by 2050 is welcomed, however its 2030 target remains insufficient for positioning Australia competitively into the future and achieving a sustainable and productive economy, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) has said. The Government has announced that Australia will keep its commitment to reducing emissions 26-28% by 2030 (compared to 2005 levels). “The announcement to target net zero emissions by 2050 aligns Australia with our key trading partners and is welcomed. However Australia’s near-term target of achieving emissions reductions of 26-28% by 2030 is not aligned with the Paris Agreement’s interim targets of 35-55% and is insufficient for readying the Australian economy for the transition needed,” said Nicolette Boele, RIAA’s Executive, Policy and Standards. “Projections do not offer business and investor sufficient policy certainty. Australia’s projections of achieving 30-35% reductions by 2030 should be government policy, providing investors with more reliable parameters for better risk pricing and valuation.”

Following this week’s release of the final report from the Senate inquiry into Rio Tinto’s destruction of Juukan Gorge, a new toolkit for the Australian and global investment community has been launched, detailing practical steps investors can take when considering and engaging with companies on Indigenous Peoples’ rights and cultural heritage protection. An initiative of the Responsible Investment Association Australasia’s (RIAA’s) Human Rights Working Group, the Investor Toolkit: An Investor Focus on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Cultural Heritage Protection supports investors to manage the increasingly material issue of Indigenous heritage protection. The toolkit was produced by leading experts from finance organisations such as abrdn (formally Aberdeen Standard Investments), HESTA, AustralianSuper and Refinitiv, and endorsed by Indigenous groups such as the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance and National Native Title Council.

A landmark business and investor initiative has been launched – bringing together First Nations, business and investor communities – focused on strengthening Australia’s First People’s heritage laws and standards for the private sector to uphold the human rights of First Peoples. Led by the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance in partnership with the Global Compact Network Australia (GCNA), and the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), the Dhawura Ngilan Business and Investor Initiative sees protecting cultural heritage as the responsibility of all Australians, including the finance and business sectors. The initiative is being launched as the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia prepares to report on its inquiry into the devastating destruction of Juukan Gorge on the traditional lands of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (Binigura) peoples. This 2020 event marked a turning point in awareness of the value and importance of Country and cultural heritage for all Australians.

In the universe of sustainable finance, we’re getting used to growth. More investors are demanding ESG screens, more are looking for impact, and more are flexing their custodial rights.

The market for responsible investments in Aotearoa New Zealand has continued to soar in popularity to $142 billion in 2020, with responsible investment assets growing at more than twice the rate of overall professionally managed investments – the landmark annual study from the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) has found. The new RIAA report, researched in collaboration with KPMG, Responsible Investment Benchmark Report Aotearoa New Zealand 2021, shows that while the majority of the mainstream investment market claims to be responsibly invested, those funds engaging in leading practice responsible investment have seen an explosion in assets under management, increasing 28% to $142 billion in 2020 from $111 billion in 2019. Additionally, the proportion of professionally managed funds now managed with leading practice responsible investment has grown to 43% in 2020. “The proportion of New Zealand’s investment managers practising a leading approach to responsible investment nearly doubled in 2020, to comprise nearly half of investment managers purporting to engage in responsible investing,” said Nicolette Boele, Executive, Policy and Standards for RIAA. “This trend suggests the quality of practice in New Zealand is pulling ahead of the Australian marketplace, where only a quarter of investment managers are engaging in leading practice responsible investment. “Meanwhile we are seeing those investment managers with ineffective responsible investment policies and poor processes being left behind as the capital moves out”.