New Zealand Government Pension Fund Quits Tobacco Stocks

Source from:  earthtimes.org Tue, 23 Oct 2007  10/23/2007

The New Zealand government's pension fund is selling its tobacco stocks, dubbing them "inconsistent with responsible investment standards," it announced Tuesday. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund said it was selling nearly 38 million New Zealand dollars (about 28.1 million US dollars) worth of tobacco stocks assessing environmental, social, and governance issues against relevant international conventions, New Zealand law and government policy. Chief executive Adrian Orr said that putting money in the sector was "inconsistent with our responsible investment standards based on product-safety issues and New Zealand's commitment to specific international conventions. "In the case of tobacco manufacture, we determined that this would be in conflict to the long-term goals of a shareholder and inconsistent with New Zealand commitments to international conventions, in particular the objectives of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control," he said. New Zealand was one of the first countries to ban smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants. The government established the fund in 2001 to help meet the increasing cost of paying state pensions for New Zealand's ageing population, with the number of retired people expected to double by 2050. Orr said that tobacco stocks accounted for 0.29 per cent of the fund's total investment portfolio. Enditem