Australian Friends demonstrating. Photo: Lloyd Godman.
Australian Quakers divest funds
Australian Friends are to move their investments from funds that damage the earth
Australian Friends are to move their investments from funds that damage the earth.
More than 200 Australian Quakers, gathering in Melbourne for Yearly Meeting, agreed to remove their corporate funds from the country’s ‘big four’ banks. They also called on individual members and Meetings to do the same.
‘We have a problem with the investment policies of the larger banks in Australia, where our money is being used for financing some of these companies [alcohol, tobacco, military weapons, uranium and other mining and similar concerns]. We are particularly worried about carbon-intensive industries and some others which do not have the ethical standards that we would like,’ said presiding clerk Julian Robertson.
‘To be true to our principles, we have to look at all aspects of our lives,’ he added. ‘Where we invest our money, even in our normal day-to-day banking, is part of that process.’
A group of individual Quakers at the Yearly Meeting also took part in a short demonstration to show that they have moved their accounts, or are planning to, on the first Global Divestment Day, 13-14 February.
