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One of the resource companies slated by the Australian National University for divestment says it is “incredibly confident” it will no longer be judged as harshly once “incorrect, false and misleading” information from a corporate social responsibility adviser is corrected.
The ANU has said it would reconsider its decision to divest from seven resource companies if it was presented with new information – as the argument over its decision-making processes continues to prompt fierce criticism from the government as well as a growing chorus in defence of the university’s right to take a stand.
West Australian copper miner Sandfire Resources said the assessment by the advisory firm CAER, upon which the ANU relied for its divestment decisions, was “significantly incorrect” and had apparently relied on an “incredibly cursory” perusal of the company’s website.
Chief executive Karl Simich told Guardian Australia he and his executives had had “extensive consultation” with CAER after they received the report and had pointed out “serious inaccuracies”, including that the company was connected with the nuclear industry when it was not, and that a single test drilling operation at an old mine site in Papua New Guinea was “likely to involve forest clearing”.
“I am looking forward to their update … I am incredibly confident that it should be dramatically different,” Simich said, but added that it was alarming the initial report, with such serious reputational consequences, could have been concluded without consultation with the company.
Such corporate ethics advisors should be regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, he suggested. The company is “reserving the right” to take legal action over the issue.
With prime minister Tony Abbott labelling the decision as “stupid” and other ministers calling it “reckless” and “bizarre”, there is also a strong movement to defend the ANU.
An initial letter published this week in support of the university’s right to make investment decisions without “bullying from vested interests and government ministers”, which was signed by former Liberal leader John Hewson and former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, is set to be republished on Friday with extra signatures of support.
Among the new signatures are Stephen Heintz, president of Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation founded through the family’s oil fortune, and more than 8,000 citizens who have signed an open letter organised by thinktank the Australia Institute.
ANU vice chancellor Ian Young has said that the decisions were based on advice formulated “using an internationally recognised methodology” and that “our consultants stand by their assessment which we have found persuasive”.
But he said “should new information come to hand, or flaws become evident in the methodology involved, we would naturally reconsider the assessments.”
CAER has refused to make public comment.
Meanwhile, assistant infrastructure minister Jamie Briggs, one of the first government ministers to attack the university, wrote to Young on Monday criticising the decision for being taken on the basis of a secret report “without any input or opportunity to comment from the companies named, nor any direct queries made to them, and then released to the national media”.
“This behaviour indicates that … there [is] a seeming lack of concern about the possible reputational damage to the companies concerned … I find it extraordinary that a publicly funded institution, particularly one of such standing as the ANU, would make such a simplistic moral judgement on an Australian company, let alone seven, without first providing the directly interested parties with an opportunity to respond to the allegations,” he wrote.
He also said the decision meant the ANU was sacrificing its own financial returns, apparently on the assumption that “these losses will be topped up by taxpayers”.
Hewson told Guardian Australia he did not support the argument that institutions should divest all fossil fuel shares, instead arguing that they should identify risk and decide how to best manage it. But he said the government’s “bullying and intimidation” of the ANU was “utterly appalling” and that he understood there were “all kinds of threats being made behind the scenes”.
Prime minister Tony Abbott said this week that “of course [the ANU] should be free to do what they want, but when they make stupid decisions we should be free to criticise them. Any entity which says that they’re simply not going to invest in energy companies is frankly depriving its members of the benefit of some very good investments, because Australia ought to be one of the world’s energy superpowers.”
The ANU said it would sell shares in Iluka Resources, Independence Group, Newcrest Mining, Sandfire Resources, Oil Search, Santos and Sirius Resources.
