Antinuclear

Australia investing in nuclear weapons, while piously preaching against them

The difficulty for the Australian government is that Julia Gillard was just in South Korea at a global Nuclear weapons conference claiming Australia is a leader in global efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. …

for the Australian government’s own Future Fund to be simultaneously investing in nuclear weapons manufacturers surely undermines Australia’s chances of advancing such goals. 

Your taxes hard at work making mushroom clouds, The Punch, James Norman, 7 April 12,  “…..Following a freedom-of-information (FOI) request from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) the Australian Future Fund disclosed to the Senate last year that it invests Australian taxpayers’ (often pension funds) money in 14 companies involved in the production and maintenance of nuclear weapons.

The total value of these holdings in nuclear weapons-related companies is approximately $133 million, while the overall value of the Future Fund’s investments is $73 billion. The 14 nuclear weapons companies in its portfolio are involved in the design, production and maintenance of nuclear weapons for the US, British, French and Indian governments.

The companies in question that are involved in the manufacture or deployment of nuclear weapons include Babcock International ($127,480), Boeing (over $6 million), Honeywell International ($97 Million), Rockweel Collins (over $15 million) and Rolls Royce (over $1.7 million).

If this comes as a shock to you, that’s not surprising. The Future
Fund has not made a big public statement about its nuclear weapons
investments, preferring to keep them under a cloak of “business as
usual” financial wheelings and dealings. After all, as any first grade
economics student would know – there’s big money to be made from
modern warfare and weaponry.

The difficulty for the Australian government is that Julia Gillard was just in South Korea at a global Nuclear weapons conference claiming Australia is a leader in global efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. In
fact, the threat of nuclear Armageddon even brought about a rare show
of bipartisan support in the Australian parliament last month with
both major parties called for the eradication of nuclear weapons…..
for the Australian government’s own Future Fund to be simultaneously investing in nuclear weapons manufacturers surely undermines Australia’s chances of advancing such goals. In fact, it shows them up
to be little more than political hot-air and bunkum.

The appointment of David Gonski to the Chair of the Future Fund
presents a fresh opportunity to clear the slate and divest from
nuclear weapons producing companies. There are clear precedents for
them to do so. Both the Norwegian Government Pension Fund and the New
Zealand Superannuation Fund have divested from companies involved in
nuclear weapons production and simulated nuclear testing.

And the Future Fund itself has divested from the manufacturers of
other weapons that cause unacceptable humanitarian harm – namely,
cluster munitions and land mines. It should now exclude nuclear
weapons makers from its investment portfolio.

The threat nuclear weapons pose in 2012 is, arguably, the greatest
existential threat the planet currently faces. Nuclear weapons are not
legitimate weapons of war. International humanitarian law prohibits
the use of weapons that are incapable of distinguishing in their
effects between civilians and combatants.
Australia must match its own rhetoric to advance growing international
efforts toward a nuclear weapons free world. We can’t proclaim to
support this noble goal on the international stage but then sit by
while Australian taxpayer funded investments bankroll international
markets the most deadly weapons known to man. To do so would send a
powerful message to the companies that their involvement in nuclear
weapons production is unacceptable.

As Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu wrote in March 2012,
“Financial institutions should be called upon to do the right thing
and assist, rather than impede, efforts to eliminate the threat of
radioactive incineration by divesting from the immoral nuclear arms
industry.” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Your-taxes-hard-at-work-making-mushroom-clouds/

April 7, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, weapons and war