Te wero o te kōtuku - A day of precision and provocation

At the heart of the RIAA Conference Aotearoa NZ 2025 was a challenge, te wero o te kōtuku (the lightning strike of the kōtuku), to move with precision and purpose. It called for deliberate, values-aligned action in a world where responsible investment is a necessity.

Across various sessions, leaders from iwi, government, academia, asset ownership and management, and civil society offered a host of insights that reflected both the urgency and complexity of the moment.

The day reminded me that nature should not be seen as merely in service of the economy. It is our bedrock.

As Terina Williams of NZ Super Fund put it:

“Nature is not just a backdrop to our economies, it is a foundation… a foundation under strain.”

This framing was echoed by others who explored how investment can either regenerate or erode the systems we depend on. The conversation moved quickly from awareness to action, with a clear call for frameworks that enable trust and shared purpose.

Anne Haira, Deputy Secretary at the Ministry for the Environment, spoke candidly about the role of government in catalysing nature markets.

“A voluntary nature market is embryonic at the moment… if we have the right framework in place in New Zealand we can have more of that investment at home and also attract more investment from overseas… …The government needs to add value where it is needed. It needs to work with people like yourselves, take guidance and direction from you.”

Her remarks underscored a shift from top-down policy to co-designed solutions, where government acts as enabler rather than gatekeeper.

Fonteyn Moses-Te Kani, Director Māori Strategy at Westpac NZ, brought a powerful Indigenous lens to the conversation, urging investors to move beyond transactional models.

“The call to action from iwi is, you have our values… now help us create a partnership that allows us to invest in the very things we all have passion and purpose for… …If we look to the government and say you must, we take away the ability that we have to be self-determined.”

Her words resonated with the conference theme, precision not just in capital allocation, but in cultural agency and relational accountability.

From the asset owner perspective, Louise Bradshaw of CareSuper highlighted the technical and strategic challenges of integrating nature into investment processes.

“Nature does not have a single metric… measuring data and rolling it up into an aggregate form is challenging… …We need to value the risks of nature and price those into forecasts for investment teams.”

Her comments reflected a broader theme, the need for shared baselines, common language, and multi-stakeholder collaboration to avoid fragmentation and inertia.

Abi Curtis of PRI added her observations.

“What we are seeing is that investors are digging in. Outside of language, we are seeing little change to practices and ambition… We see that asset owners are demonstrating greater ambition and action, and investment managers approaches are becoming more nuanced.”

This tension between rhetoric and reality surfaced again in discussions on geopolitical risk and investing responsibly. Dr David Rodin challenged attendees to consider the moral weight of their capital.

“The questions being asked are very much around requiring us to think about the individual responsibility that we have for contributing to a conflict that may be profoundly unjust.”

The conversation on defence and weapons investing was provocative, with Kate Turner of First Sentier Investors, also Chair of RIAA offering a pragmatic view.

“Investors need well-functioning markets… and those are underpinned by well-functioning economies and societies.”

But it was Temuera Hall of Tahito who offered a most poetic and piercing reflection that continues to resonate far beyond the walls of Aotea Centre.

“We’re not going to find security through destroying our enemy. We need a world where enemies are no longer necessary. The most effective way to make it through the enemy… is not the power of bullets but the power of understanding… … We need more people after the power of love, over the love of power.”

These words brought many of the sessions full circle, reminding us that even as fiduciaries hard at work to achieve risk-adjusted returns, responsible investment shapes the kind of world we want to live in.

The symbolism of the kōtuku lingered throughout the day. The bird strikes when the moment is right. Deliberate and transformative. This gathering, the largest event for sustainable business and responsible investment in Aotearoa New Zealand made clear that the moment is now. The strike must be precise.

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