Medibank shareholders action

Health professionals and Medibank customers have been speaking out in favour of Medibank acting to manage climate risk, divest from fossil fuels and better prepare for global warming’s impacts on public health. Now it’s time to add the powerful voice of Medibank shareholders.

Please take a minute to contact the Medibank Chairman by filling out the form on the right.

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Dear Ms Alexander AM, Chairman, Medibank, I am writing with regard to what I see as a disturbing contradiction between Medibank’s mission to protect the health of its members, and its investments in the fossil fuel sector. The health impacts of fossil fuels have been well documented. Direct impacts from fossil fuel extraction, transportation and combustion include respiratory diseases and the return of black lung disease among coal miners. The health impacts of climate change are via more frequent and severe heat waves, floods, storm surges, droughts and bushfires, increasing pollen levels and longer pollen seasons and the expansion of vector-borne diseases. The medical journal The Lancet describes climate change as the “biggest global health threat of the 21st Century”. The economic impacts of health hazards caused or exacerbated by climate change have also been studied. A 2015 Deloitte Access Economics report estimated that the health and social costs (illnesses, injuries, fatalities, psychological distress, drug and alcohol misuse, and family violence) to the Australian economy of the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 were $3.9 billion, and the 2011 Queensland floods cost $10.2 billion. These figures do not including direct infrastructure damage. If the impacts of climate change continue to worsen as predicted by scientists, it is also likely that health costs will increase and the overall health of Australians and Medibank’s customer base will worsen. As a shareholder, I would like to see Medibank assessing the risks posed to it by global warming and put in place a plan to mitigate these risks as much as possible. These assessments and plans should be disclosed to investors and include commitments for eliminating our company's exposure to the fossil fuel sector. I intend to pursue this issue until clear and acceptable answers are provided, and hope that Medibank will have announced its plans to divest from the fossil fuel sector, and disclose its plans for climate change risk management by the time our full year results are announced. Your sincerely,
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