Back in February, we learned that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund was investing in companies that manufacture nuclear weapons. Today, we learn that they're also investing in oppression in Burma. The Dominion-Post reports that the fund has admitted having investments in Total Oil named by the Burma Campaign UK as "the main supporter of the Burmese military regime":
TOTAL Oil is the fourth largest oil company in the world and one of the biggest foreign investors in Burma. Its joint venture with Burma’s dictatorship earns the military regime hundreds of millions of dollars every year.Based on the latter alone, this is not a company anyone should be investing in, if only for the naked financial reason that one day they will be sued by one of their victims in a US court and bankrupted. And it is certainly not a company the New Zealand government (which remember "stand[s] up for the rule of law and the human rights upheld by the United Nations") should be goign near.Widespread systematic human rights abuses have been associated with the TOTAL pipeline, including forced labour, torture and rape.
The NZSF also admits to investing in China's Sinopec and Malaysia's Petronas, but its worse than that. Comparing their 2006 equity portfolio to the Burma Campaign's dirty list turns up quite a list:
| Company | Investment |
| Alcatel | $521,984 |
| Baker-Hughes | $870,674 |
| BJ Services | $9,750,411 |
| Chevron | $12,753,174 |
| DBS Group Holdings | $956,721 |
| GAIL India | $856,567 |
| Hutchison Whampoa | $1,316,554 |
| Ivanhoe Mines | $56,320 |
| Keppel Co | $350,414 |
| Kajima | $278,641 |
| Marubeni | $4,512,730 |
| Mitsui | $4,309,373 |
| Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance | $2,326,065 |
| Nippon Oil | $2,650,055 |
| OCBC | $699,087 |
| Rolls Royce | $537,715 |
| Siemens | $1,637,570 |
| Sompo Japan | $1,720,446 |
| Sumitomo | $3,569,711 |
| Sumitomo Mitsui Financial | $12,160,830 |
| Suzuki | $177,421 |
| Taisei | $269,680 |
| United Overseas Bank | $759,904 |
That's $63 million of our money which is helping to prop up the Burmese regime.
Not investing in companies which torture and not investing in Burma are two fundamentals of any ethical investment policy. But clearly, our superannuation fund doesn't give a shit.
