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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-10-15 Daily Xml
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Fossil Fuel Investment

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:54): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the minister representing the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water on the topic of divesting from fossil fuel investment in a declared climate emergency.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: The International Energy Agency and the IPCC are in agreement, each stating categorically that there is no room for new fossil fuel agreements if the world is to reach its goal of keeping warming to 1.5° Celsius. We cannot meet climate goals globally unless we bring an immediate halt to new and expanded fossil fuel projects. That is why May 2022 was so welcome when the South Australian parliament declared a climate emergency and committed to restoring a safe climate by transforming the economy to net zero emissions.

That motion, auspiced in the other place by Minister Close, passed both houses of this parliament in mid-2022, and that in itself was of course preceded by a petition signed by over 10,000 of our constituents calling for strong climate action and a climate emergency declaration. Yet just months later, in December 2022, ANZ was contracted by the Malinauskas government as the sole provider of core banking services for the South Australian government.

This is no doubt a lucrative contract with ANZ and it is now in place until 2027, with an option to extend for a further five years, so possibly 2032 but at least 2027, when, of course, we hope to be hosting the COP31 in November 2026. It might just get a little awkward. It does seem that the reality check about the big banks is still in the mail for the Malinauskas government.

While fossil fuels kill as many people globally every year as tobacco—some one in five deaths—our state seemingly ignores the fact that, since the Paris Agreement, the ANZ has funded more fossil fuel projects than any other Australian bank. According to the most recent Market Forces report on Australia's big banks, in 2023 alone the ANZ lent almost $1 billion to companies wanting to develop new coal, oil and gas projects. The ANZ also arranged $1.5 billion in bonds for fossil fuels, demonstrating the largest appetite of the major banks for this type of backdoor finance, and over half of ANZ's bond financing went to companies with coal, oil or gas expansion plans.

On matters of principle we have divested. We have divested as a state from Russia over the war in Ukraine, and rightly so. We divested. We are fully cognisant of the health impacts of tobacco and eschew business dealings with big tobacco. We have divested. Having declared a climate emergency, how is it possible, or ethical, for this government to then just months later award a contract for core banking services to the ANZ? We should have divested. We should be divesting from those who are causing harm by perpetuating investment in fossil fuels. If we are in a climate emergency, we must take real climate action, and in cold hard cash. My questions are specifically:

1. How will the Malinauskas government put in place measures to ensure South Australia divests our banking from the ANZ if they continue to be the worst offender of the big banks when it comes to facilitating the continuation of fossil fuels?

2. What processes are and were in place to ensure any and all procurement decisions of the state are implementing our stated declaration of a climate emergency?

The PRESIDENT: Attorney, just before you attempt to answer the question, the Hon. Ms Franks you are not a serial pest when it comes to long explanations, but that was not really a brief explanation. I know that you had points to make.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:58): Thank you, sir, and I will be brief. I thank the honourable member for her question, and I will refer it to the relevant minister or ministers in another place for a response to bring back.

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