Documents obtained by Greens Senator David Shoebridge have revealed how the Future Fund has invested more than $600 million in public funds in global weapons companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documents, current to 31 October 2023, show the Future Fund has direct holdings in 30 weapons and aerospace companies including Thales, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remarkably the Fund\u2019s board has invested nearly half a million dollars into the Israel-based Elbit Systems despite the Future Fund being banned from investing in Elbit System since at least 2021 due to \u2018exclusions related to military weapons-related Conventions or Treaties ratified by Australia\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens Defence Spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge said:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Albanese Government needs to introduce mandatory ethical investment rules for the Future Fund and that must absolutely include a prohibition on investing in weapon manufacturers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cElbit Systems is meant to be excluded from the Future Fund\u2019s investment choices because of exclusions related to military weapons-related Conventions and Treaties ratified by Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Future Fund’s board needs to explain how it continues to invest in Elbit Systems despite the publicly announced direction it gave to withdraw those funds because of Australia\u2019s international legal obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cElbit Systems is also deeply implicated in the current destruction in Gaza where a suite of its weapons are deployed from artillery pieces to drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe majority of Australians want peace and justice, not just in Palestine, but around the world, yet the country’s wealth is instead being funnelled into companies that fuel violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Future Fund is meant to benefit future generations. That rings very hollow when they are investing in companies making equipment that ends future generations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greens Finance spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking at some of the investments the Future Fund has been making through an ethical lens and found some very questionable products including fossil fuel ventures, gambling and now this, weapons manufacturing that could be contributing to the deaths of innocent civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think many Australians would be deeply distressed to find out that our sovereign wealth fund, our money, is being used in a variety of ways that conflict with basic moral and ethical principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to review the investment guidelines that govern the Future Fund and put some restrictions in place so that Australians can live with a clear conscience, knowing that our investments are making the world a better place and not the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Documents obtained by Greens Senator David Shoebridge have revealed how the Future Fund has invested more than $600 million in public funds in global weapons companies. The documents, current to 31 October 2023, show the Future Fund has direct holdings in 30 weapons and aerospace companies including Thales, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. Remarkably the … Continue reading “FUTURE FUND INVESTING OVER $600 MILLION IN WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS, INCLUDING A BLACKLISTED ISRAELI ARMS COMPANY”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24431,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24430\/revisions\/24431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}