Anti-nuke campaign criticises super fund

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has been given only three out of four stars in an international report called ‘‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’’.

The report from Ican, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, claims the fund doesn’t have bullet-proof defences against investing taxpayer money in the nuclear weapons industry through sub-funds.

This is despite the fund excluding investments in shares and bonds of companies involved in the nuclear weapons industry.

NZ Super Fund spokeswoman Catherine Etheredge said the risk of it having investments in the nuclear bomb industry was low.

The fund invests some of its money through specialist thirdparty fund managers, and Ican said two were not covered by the nuclear weapons exclusion.

The NZ Super Fund’s exclusion policy only applied to the portfolios that were managed exclusively for it, Ican said.

‘‘The policy does not extend to two pooled hedge fund mandates that hold bonds or equities.’’

The fund also did ‘‘not exclude companies that are involved in the production of all specifically designed nuclear weapons delivery systems’’, the report said.

Etheredge said the fund was guided in its policies by New Zealand legislation, including the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987, and would change its policies if the legislation changed.

The two hedge fund mandates mentioned by Ican were not a concern, she said.

‘‘With one … the manager has reporting in place and we are comfortable it does not, in practice, hold excluded securities.

‘‘With the other, NZ Super Fund does not have direct exposure to excluded companies through this mandate, and any risk of ongoing indirect exposure is so low … and size of any potential exposure so small, we have decided that in practice the risk is not material enough to be concerned about.’’