At Whitehaven Coal’s annual general meeting (AGM) today, almost 10% of shareholder votes were cast in favour of a Market Forces-coordinated proposal calling on the company to demonstrate how spending on new and expanded coal mines is a better use of capital than additional shareholder returns.
Voting results confirm that Australia’s largest super fund and Whitehaven’s top shareholder, AustralianSuper, voted against this simple disclosure request. This is a shocking move from an institution with a mandate to protect and grow its members’ retirement savings, as AustralianSuper has every reason – including basic risk management principles – to demand answers to the questions raised by this shareholder resolution.
Responding to the shareholder vote, Brett Morgan, Investor Campaigns Manager, Market Forces, said:
“Based on today’s vote, AustralianSuper has failed to take a basic step towards protecting its members’ retirement savings from being wasted on risky and polluting new coal mines.”
“As Whitehaven Coal’s largest investor, AustralianSuper faces growing risks from the company’s reckless coal expansion and must pull out all the stops to prevent shareholder cash being burnt on more mining.”