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Union super fund signs Paris climate agreement - now employing Climate Change "Activist" to bring back carbon tax

Wednesday, 02 August 2017

Vision Super is an industry fund, ostensibly run only to benefit members through their super.

It's closely associated with the Australian Services Union with four of nine directors appointed on the nomination of the ASU, four appointed on the nomination of the employer associations (MAV, VWIA and VECCI) and one independent director.

It's subject to the provisions of the Sole Purpose Test legislated in Sect 62 of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act. That means it can only do things that relate directly to providing its members with benefits on retirement, death or permanent incapacity. The ancillary services (admin, marketing etc) are tightly regulated with serious penalties for doing things not associated with the Sole Purpose.

Vision Super is a signatory to a group which grew out of the Paris climate agreements.

http://investorsonclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/11DecemberGISCC.pdf

Amongst other things, Vision Super and their corporate buddies all agree to lobby their governments to:

Provide "meaningful" carbon pricing
Strengthen regulatory support for renewable energy
Support deployment of low carbon technologies, including financing clean energy
Phase out subsidies for fossil fuels.

Now Vision Super is after a Climate Activist to help fit us up with carbon pricing etc. A hell of a stretch to suggest that's directly associated with superannuation benefits - but I'm sure there's a legal opinion on the tip of some PR's Twitter bizzo to convince us otherwise.

insight purple

Vision Super seeking climate activist to promote Vision Super

In a first for an industry super fund, Vision Super today announced they are seeking an enthusiastic environmental activist to join their Climate Action Team. Vision Super CEO, Stephen Rowe, said the Climate Action Team was formed to manage climate risk in investments and push for the policy changes needed at a national and international level.

“We’re a signatory to the Paris Agreement, and take the risks posed by climate change very seriously, so we’ve formed a Climate Action team that includes Michael Wyrsch, our Chief Investments Officer, as well as me as the CEO, and members of our investment and strategy teams,” he said.

“Markets are not pricing climate risk in appropriately, so we’ve already acted to reduce the carbon intensity of our portfolios to protect our members’ retirement savings.

“We’re also taking a shareholder activist approach, which has already made a real difference to emissions disclosures by companies like Exxon.

“We’re now looking for an enthusiastic, qualified climate activist to join the team and help us take action on climate change, and promote our approach to ESG. This isn’t a traditional 9-5 office job where you wear a suit and sit in an office. This is a job for an energetic activist who wants to get out to climate rallies, meetings and community events and promote Vision Super.

Vision Super is committed to environmentally sustainable investment, and offers Australia’s lowest cost sustainable investment option[1]. We are ranked 19th out of the world’s 500 largest investors for our action on climate change in the 2017 Global Climate Index by the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP) and by the Responsible Investors Association of Australasia (RIAA) as the fourth largest responsible investor in Australia.

Here's the job ad

Trustee Directors

The best interests of all members

Posted at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Comments

Vision Super is an industry fund, ostensibly run only to benefit members through their super.

Vision Super is a signatory to a group which grew out of the Paris climate agreements.

http://investorsonclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/11DecemberGISCC.pdf

Amongst other things, Vision Super and their corporate buddies all agree to lobby their governments to:

Provide "meaningful" carbon pricing
Strengthen regulatory support for renewable energy
Support deployment of low carbon technologies, including financing clean energy
Phase out subsidies for fossil fuels.

insight purple

Vision Super seeking climate activist to promote Vision Super

“Markets are not pricing climate risk in appropriately, so we’ve already acted to reduce the carbon intensity of our portfolios to protect our members’ retirement savings.

“We’re also taking a shareholder activist approach, which has already made a real difference to emissions disclosures by companies like Exxon.

DATE	EVENT/DOCUMENT
1990	Julia Gillard becomes a Partner at Slater and Gordon and is in the Industrial Relations Department of law firm
20-08-91	Letter to Bruce Wilson from Julia Gillard concerning a vacancy at the AWU
1-05-91	Julia Gillard brought her property at 36 Phillip Street, Abbotsford Vic property settled in July and she borrowed $40,000 from Slater & Gordon for the deposit and the rest from Westpac bank
6-03-92	Advertisement appeared in the paper for Incorporating the Workplace Reform Association - Theiss may have used it for reference

17-03-92	Locals concerned the Accident and Death Fund was being used to buy property and office equipment with the funds they paid into the fund.
18-03-92	Boulder fund suspended
15-05-92	Bruce Wilson and Julia Gillard go to a meeting with the miners in Kalgoorlie
18-05-92	AWU announce it is taking over the fund at Boulder paper article
13-02-93	Contract of sale signed by Bruce Wilson
13-02-93	Purchase of 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy by Julia Gillard and B Wilson who attended the Auction
13-02-93	blewitt-getting-his-addres.html Purchase of 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy by Julia Gillard and Bruce Wilson who attended the Auction
15-02-93	Letter to Slater & Gordon about the 1/85 Kerr Street sale
15-02-93	Ralph Blewitt is appointed Western Australian Branch Secretary in the week 15 to 19 February
16-02-93	Olive Brosnan and Heidi chasing up the Power of Attorney - notes
17-02-93	Olive Brosnan makes this further note regarding Heidi, a sales person with the Real Estate firm GA Thomson. Note that Heidi returns the call and says that she will let Olive Brosnan have the original Power of Attorney (when she gets it?) and will need a certified copy in return
22-02-93	Slater and Gordon acknowledges that it has received the Contract of Sale, Section 32 Statement and the Power of Attorney from GA Thomson.
23-02-93	Olive Brosnan certifies Power of Attorney
3-03-93	A memo from Sylvia to Olive Brosnan about the application for the loan for Ralph Blewitt and the Kerr Street property
4-03-93	Letter/fax from Hewitt & Company stating Ralph Blewitt Wages Ref VB/CS
9-03-93	Memo to Olive Brosnan from Sylvia about the loan approval and the return of the chq for $500 from Ralph Blewitt’s personal account
10-03-93	Letter from Slater & Gordon addressed to Ralph Blewitt explaining mortgage details Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
10-03-93	Memo Julia Gillard wants details of penalty interest rates
12-03-93	Memo to Julia Gillard from Olive Brosnan about penalty interest rates
17-03-93	Memo of fees for house - Bill of costs
18-03-93	Letter to Ralph Blewitt requesting Cheque for $67,772.30
18-03-93	The cheque for $67,772.30
22-03-93	Settlement date for Kerr Street purchase
23-03-93	Land Transfer document
31-03-94	Dawesville project costs
Aug-Sept 94	Julia Gillard went on holidays while Bruce Wilson organised house renovations
Aug-Sept 94	Interview with Slater & Gordon about the Renovations
6-02-95	New bank accounts for Construction Fund
17-02-95	AWU-FIME amalgamate (2 Victorian Branches)
12-04-95	Cheque from AWU WRAI account $46,550
27-04-95	Cheque for $15000 - $10 000 for K Spyridis and $5000 cash
30-06-95	AWU went back to central funding arrangements
25-07-95	Letter from Robert Smith (AWU) to Ian Cambridge and Steve Harrison about the unknown AWU bank accounts
27-07-95	Letter to the National Executives about the freezing of the accounts
2-08-95	Union National Finance committee meet to discuss what was going on start of investigations into the frozen accounts
4-08-95	Bob Smith wrote to Ian Cambridge to say the AWU was going to charge Bruce Wilson
10-08-95	Ian Cambridge visits QC Richard Kenzie from Maurice Blackburn for discussions to fix it (get union money back)
14-08-95	Internal Review into Julia Gillard’s involvement of the AWU -WRA and she is put on restricted duties
14/15 Aug 95	Other Joint secretaries of the Unions paid out the signatories of the accounts - hand writing on the cheques Link 1 Link 2
16-08-95	Bruce Wilson redundancy cheque $55,204
17-08-95	Letter to stop the cheques Ian Cambridge
17/18 Aug 95	All accounts were closed bar 2 general and grants accounts and redundancies given out
18-08-95	Affidavit - Bill Ludwig - Bruce Wilson get sprung
11-09-95	Julia Gillard interviewed by Geoff Shaw, Peter Gordon and Nick Styant-Browne at Slater and Gordon - It’s recorded and she goes on leave of Absence until May 96 (WA AWU-WRA not yet discovered by AWU yet)
31-01-96	Ian Cambridge addresses AWU Qld Branch meeting
3-04-96	Ian Cambridge talked with Commonwealth Bank - Diary entry - Discovery of Workplace Reform Association INC. WA branch
6-05-96	Discovery of Accounts in AWU name by Ian Cambridge letter from Commonwealth Bank
7-05-96	Fax from Com bank listing the accounts in the AWU name - for Ian Cambridge
1-06-96	Newspaper article about Joe Trio and the AWU fraud article from sometime in 1996
3-06-96	Ian Cambridge received bank records after the discussions with the bank back in April Ian Cambridge spoke to AWU Officials in Perth and they never heard of the Workplace Reform Association Inc.
5-07-96	Diary entry Ian Cambridge - spoke to Branch Official Russell Frearson about the $400,000 going through the account
31-07-96	Geoff Shaw Slater & Gordon General Manager gets Subpoena to supply all documents relating to purchase of 1/85 Kerr Street
13-08-96	Court proceeding where Geoff Shaw is to produce the documents from the Subpeona Link 1, Link 2
6-01-97	Memo from Investigating Detective Dave McAlpine about the AWU fraud
6-02-97	Memo to fraud squad from Theiss stating they hadn’t been defrauded Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4
17-02-98	Memo fraud squad about Theiss - Ralph Blewitt said Theiss auditors required that the WRA needed to be Inc.