HESTA felt the heat last week as members, health workers and concerned community members rallied outside the super fund’s Melbourne office, demanding greater action on climate change.
Our communities are facing increasing bushfires, floods and heatwaves and the need for bold climate action has never been more urgent. Just this week, the Australian Government released its long-awaited national climate risk assessment, which tells a horrifying story about the kind of future Australians could face unless we drastically cut climate pollution.
Extreme weather events fuelled by pollution from burning coal, oil and gas pose an ever growing threat to the health of communities in Australia and all over the world. As the super fund for the health and community services sectors, many of HESTA’s members are on the frontlines of climate disasters and these members are increasingly speaking out about their experiences.
Despite this, HESTA has stalled on climate action in recent years. After taking the positive step of putting Australia’s two largest oil and gas companies Santos and Woodside on notice in 2022, the fund has since failed to take effective action to rein in their polluting oil and gas expansion plans.
In fact, after HESTA asked Santos and Woodside to demonstrate how their plans to expand oil and gas align with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement – which climate science tells us is an impossible expectation – both companies have responded by doubling down on fossil fuel expansion!
This is why a growing number of HESTA members are taking action, demanding their fund stops greenwashing and starts taking effective action to end new fossil fuels.
HESTA must stop ignoring members’ concerns and take a clear stance against new fossil fuel developments.
Take action – tell HESTA to stand up for its members and say no to new fossil fuels.
Take action!
Tell HESTA to say no to new fossil fuels.
Pressure on HESTA backed by organisations representing more than one million health and community workers
On Monday last week, we ran a full page advertisement in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, calling on HESTA to say no to new fossil fuels. We handed out copies of this ad to HESTA staff outside the fund’s Melbourne office.
A growing number of health and climate organisations are beginning to speak out about HESTA’s failure to demand an end to new fossil fuels, joining fund members who have been asking for greater climate action for years. We joined forces with our friends at Healthy Futures, Doctors for the Environment Australia, the Climate and Health Alliance, Amnesty International Australia, the Centre for Non-Violence and Jesuit Social Services to send a clear message to HESTA: stand up for your members and say no to new fossil fuels.
Collectively, these organisations represent more than a million health and community services workers, meaning this is a message HESTA can’t ignore.
Day of action: HESTA members rally outside their fund’s Melbourne office
On Tuesday, we showed up outside HESTA’s Melbourne office alongside the fund’s members, health workers and community members fed up with HESTA’s slow progress on climate. Despite the rain, attendees were determined to challenge HESTA’s greenwashing and ensure the fund is held accountable to its climate commitments.
Just in case HESTA didn’t see our strong demonstration of people power, we also hired a billboard truck to get the message across: HESTA must take a stance against Santos and Woodside’s oil and gas expansion plans. Continued silence on major projects like the Browse and Beetaloo gas fields is a tacit endorsement of those polluting expansion plans, and HESTA’s stated support for the climate goals of the Paris Agreement lacks credibility without a clear position against new fossil fuel developments.
Speeches were given by Lucy from Healthy Futures and Brett from Market Forces.
Rally attendees had the pleasure of joining chants and singalongs with the Melbourne Climate Choir, handing out flyers and having conversations with members of the public, and cheering on the billboard truck each time it rounded the corner in front of HESTA’s office. Lucy, a clinical psychologist and Healthy Futures’ health representative, gave a speech to the crowd, and so did Market Forces’ super funds campaigner Brett.
Fund members and health workers, determined to send HESTA a message it can’t ignore.
With a growing number of members, health workers and organisations joining the campaign, this rally made one thing clear: momentum will only continue to build.
What comes next? That’s up to HESTA
As the climate crisis worsens, we need to see bolder and more decisive action to end new fossil fuels and drive down climate pollution. HESTA has always positioned itself as a climate leader, but has been failing to back that up with effective climate action. Despite taking some positive steps in the past, HESTA hasn’t demonstrated its willingness to do the hard work to rein in some of the most climate-damaging companies it invests its members’ retirement savings in.
As a starting point, this means demanding an end to Santos and Woodside’s oil and gas expansion plans. Both companies have consistently ignored pressure from investors for greater climate action while failing to deliver credible climate transition strategies. This requires a strong response from so-called ‘responsible investors’ like HESTA, particularly given the fund asked these companies to demonstrate alignment with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement more than three years ago.
Santos and Woodside are hell-bent on expanding oil and gas production. This means HESTA must be willing to raise pressure on these companies to end their polluting expansion plans, which are threatening a stable climate and healthy retirement for the fund’s members.
HESTA must publish a clear plan demonstrating how it is going to raise pressure on climate wreckers Santos and Woodside to end their oil and gas expansion plans. Since putting them on its ‘watchlist’ back in 2022, members have seen no information from HESTA suggesting that the fund has asked these companies to end their oil and gas expansion plans, a necessary first step on the pathway towards alignment with global climate goals.
Until HESTA demands an end to the oil and gas expansion plans of Santos and Woodside and takes effective action to back that up, fund members and health workers will continue calling out HESTA’s greenwash.
Over to you, HESTA.
Take action – tell HESTA to stand up for its members and say no to new fossil fuels.
Attendees had fun showing HESTA what people power looks like and are looking forward to more!