Greens win on ethical super

11/04/08 11:00 am

South Australian public servants and police will soon have the ability to place their retirement savings in an ethical investment option after the State Upper House last night passed Greens’ amendments to superannuation laws.

“I am delighted that our hard-working police and other public servants will soon have the same choice in how to invest their hard-earned money as the rest of the community,” said Greens MLC Mark Parnell.

“The Upper House has shown its strong support - the ball is very much now in the Government’s court - there is no reason for them to block this in the Lower House. Other states including Qld and WA have been doing this for years.

“Up until now, public servants haven’t been able to put their money in a super fund that reflected their values. We have had the bizarre situation of Health Department employees working on anti-tobacco campaigns with no choice but to have their retirement money invested in tobacco companies such as Malboro.

“That should now change. It is only right that all South Australians should have choice about where their money ends up,” he said.

Last week, Mark Parnell introduced a Private Member’s Bill to force the Government to offer an ethical super choice option for the state’s public servants, police and politicians. Now that these amendments to part of the law governing superannuation have been passed, he will fast-track debate on his Bill to ensure consistency for all public servants.

The Greens MLC has been campaigning for ethical super choice for the last 18 months. The Government’s response over that time has been to say ‘there is no demand’. However, in a survey conducted last year of 3,000 Super SA members, 31% said they would ‘definitely’ choose an ethical super option, and a further 58% said ‘maybe’.

“To say there is no demand is plain wrong. A whopping 89% of public servants say they are interested in the option. There is simply no reason not to offer these people a choice, and now with these important amendments passing, they should soon get it” he said.

Mark's campaign on ethical super

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