Estelle Parker

With increasing attention on greenwashing in finance, the largest and most comprehensive responsible investment conference in the Southern Hemisphere, RI Australia 2023, will take place in Melbourne and online on 10-11 May 2023. Held by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), the two-day conference will bring together more than 800 sustainability leaders and industry practitioners with 90 expert speakers across more than 30 sessions to demonstrate best practice in the burgeoning sustainable finance sector.

This year’s theme is “Scaling new heights in ESG and impact”, and RIAA’s Executive Manager, Estelle Parker, says it comes at a time when the responsible investment industry is facing a reckoning to deliver on the positive outcomes promised and combat greenwashing. “The industry has been thrust into the sights of governments, regulators, and not least its clients who care about the impacts of their investments. No one can afford to not be paying attention right now,” she says.

The efforts of regulators to address greenwashing will be a significant focus; with Karen Chester, Deputy Chair at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, delivering a keynote address on ASIC’s direction. Dr. Sean Carmody, Executive Director of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, will join the discussion on how Australia’s forthcoming sustainable finance taxonomy will provide much needed definitions of what constitutes a sustainable investment.

A session Estelle predicts will draw significant attention is cheekily titled “ESG: Woke & Broke?”. This session will delve into the current political attack on ESG investing by far right conservative elements in the US, and explore whether this could happen in Australia and elsewhere. Fiona Reynolds, Independent Director and Advisory Board Member who will be speaking during this opening session says, “we need to prevent ESG becoming the political football. How do we as an industry stop ESG from entering the culture wars? This isn’t just a US issue, it impacts all global investors.” Estelle Parker says that, ultimately, ESG is not political, “it constitutes good investment practice and is mainstream now. Investors don’t want governments preventing them from considering certain risks in investment decision making.”

RIAA’s research shows that approximately $726 billion in assets under management in Australia is now managed via a stewardship or corporate engagement approach. Stewardship codes have proliferated around the world. Prominent amongst these is the UK’s, which sets a high bar to entry, and has provided a blueprint for further stewardship codes globally. “This is why we invited Claudia Chapman, Head of Stewardship at UK’s Financial Reporting Council to be one of our international keynote speakers. She will share her experience developing and implementing the UK Stewardship Code and explore where next for stewardship. I would expect the growing focus on collaboration and systems change to achieve positive real-world outcomes will form part of this,” says Estelle.

While undoubtedly a step in the right direction, RIAA research shows a perception that the growth in corporate engagement and stewardship may be flooding corporate boards with a sea of requests from investors. A panel session including corporate leaders such as Patricia Cross from OFX, Dr. Guy Debelle from Fortescue Future Industries, and Mark Rigotti CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) will provide insights on what corporate engagement looks from the inside and practical advice for investors to work more collaboratively to alleviate the burden on companies and achieve the real-world outcomes desired.

RI Australia 2023 will place a spotlight on First Nations luminaries. Karen Mundine, CEO at Reconciliation Australia, and Phil Usher, CEO at First Nations Foundation, will speak on Voice to Parliament and how investors be a genuine partner in reconciliation and self-determination. Professor Peter Yu AM, Vice President (First Nations) at ANU, Benson Saulo, the first Indigenous person to be appointed an Australian Consul-General, and Leah Armstrong, Managing Director at First Australians Capital, will speak on First Nations investment markets. Ian Hamm, Chair of the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and new Board member of the AICD, will speak on Caring for Country and how investors can partner with First Australians.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for investors, and RIAA’s Human Rights Working Group has been busy working on a guide to navigate investing that may be affected by armed conflict-related issues with experts from organisations like the Australian Red Cross. Delegates at the conference will be presented with the exclusive launch of the ‘Investors and Armed Conflict: A Guide’, a toolkit that provides essential frameworks and insights for investors and companies seeking to protect human rights and mitigate risks associated with armed conflict. “This is going to be a vital toolkit for investors to support human rights in conflict-affected regions like Ukraine and Myanmar, and what they can do before, during and after conflict,” says Estelle.

RI Australia 2023 is set to be a jam-packed conference with sessions covering a diverse range of topics, from modern slavery and workplace culture to big tech, human rights and reputation management. There will be interactive workshops on target-setting and promoting ESG within organisations, as well as sessions tailored to financial advisers, including responsible investment for beginners, and advice on how to construct a good responsible investment portfolio. Attendees will also gain insights into consumer research and demand.

With over 500 members representing US$29 trillion in assets under management, RIAA is dedicated to ensuring capital is aligned with achieving a healthy society, environment and economy.

“Not only is the program comprehensive featuring the latest trends and emerging issues, we see this as an unique opportunity for attendees to develop their skills and knowledge, make connections and explore growth opportunities in the sustainable finance space,” says Estelle

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David Gonski

The 30 % Club has launched the 30% ‘Surge for Diversity’ campaign to increase the momentum for change in Australia’s boardrooms, and is calling on the corporate community for support.

Launching the campaign at a 30% Club meeting in Sydney today, ANZ chair and prominent supporter of the 30% Club, David Gonski AC, said that achieving greater board diversity was an important part of enhancing corporate governance.

“Diversity of thought and independence are essential elements of an effective board, which is why we must continue to push to achieve our goals of at least 30 per cent female ASX 200 board members,” Gonski said.

Over the next two months the Australian chapter 30 % Club, which has the primary objective of achieving 30 per cent female representation across ASX 200 boards by the end of 2018, will campaign for commitments from companies that do not currently meet the target.

As part of this campaign, the 30% Club’s Investors Working Group members will apply pressure through their channels to help drive activity and the Executive Search Working Group will be on hand to assist with the appointment process.

The 30% Club will release a key research report on board succession practices and how to improve diversity on the boards of Australia’s largest companies.

The chair of 30% Club Australia, Patricia Cross, says that after stalling in 2017, the appointment of women to ASX 200 boards has picked up again this year and the 30% Surge for Diversity campaign aims to drive that momentum.

Cross says: “Our focus is on those boards that have yet to reach 30 per cent, most specifically the 62 which have appointed one woman and feel they have thus ticked the gender diversity box.

“In that group there are over 20 boards with a number of male directors who have served longer than the ASX Corporate Governance Council’s recommended tenure. One way of quickly reaching 30 per cent is to replace each of those men with a woman.”

According to the latest Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) quarterly Gender Diversity Report, as at 28 February 2018, women account for 26.7 per cent of ASX 200 directorships.

Women accounted for 36 per cent of appointments to ASX 200 boards in 2017 but the proportion spiked up to 47 per cent in the first two months of this year.

It was the highest rate of female appointments to ASX 200 boards since the AICD started tracking gender diversity statistics

Among ASX 200 companies, 74 have reached the 30 per cent target. Only five ASX 200 companies have no female directors.

The 30% Club was launched in 2015, with the primary objective of securing 30 per cent of the seats on ASX 200 boards for women.

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Elizabeth Proust AO

Increased gender diversity on boards leads to better performance for corporates, not only from a pure financial sense but also in terms of managing key indicators of longer term wealth creation like customer satisfaction, and building a robust employee and corporate culture.

However, despite the evidence, there are 13 Boards in the ASX 200 that have no women on their boards, and 65 companies with only one female director, notes Patricia Cross, 30% Club Chairman on the second year anniversary of launching this initiative in Australia.

The 30% Club is a group of chairs, directors and business leaders taking action to increase gender diversity on Australian boards. The group has set an ambitious goal of ensuring that women account for at least 30 per cent of all directors on ASX 200 boards by the end of 2018.

“The rate of appointment of women to boards has fallen in this calendar year to only one in three. Surely it can’t be that big of a deal to appoint women to two appointments out of five? We need to get serious about this issue,” she said.

She said: “The response from many company Chairs and CEOs has been overwhelming, especially in its generosity of spirit. However, sometimes I feel that our campaign is being promoted as a social, “feel good” agenda. By all means, feel good about it, but let’s not kid ourselves: diversity is a business imperative.

“The message is clear. We believe that gender balance on boards not only encourages better leadership and governance, but diversity further contributes to better all-round board performance, and ultimately increased corporate performance for both companies and their shareholders.”
30% Club Steering Group Member and Australian Institute of Company Directors Chairman Elizabeth Proust AO said: “It is essential for those in leadership positions to do everything in their power to ensure the 30% target is reached by the end of 2018.

“Once we reach that goal we can go further, but sadly we’ve still got a way to go,” she said.

Proust added: “It’s also essential that those who believe that diversity is good for business continue to champion measures to help increase diversity, from appointing female directors to their own boards to shareholders advocating for their participation on the boards they invest in.

A recent report by The 30% Club titled ‘Leading by example’ compiles feedback from ASX 200 chairs of boards with at least 30 per cent female directors. Thirty chairs from the 53 ASX 200 companies with at least 30 per cent female directors (as of August 30, 2016) participated in this survey.

The reasons given by chairs for supporting board diversity focus on the performance benefits derived from having access to a variety of unique perspectives, expertise and knowledge of 50 per cent of the talent base.

The report shows that most of the chairs are optimistic that the number of women on ASX 200 boards will surpass the 30 per cent target in the next few years. They feel that most directors support the cause because they see the real benefits for their boards and organisations and will inevitably win over detractors.

Due to the gender balance on the boards of the interviewees, many chairs are also now focusing their attention on organisational gender diversity and on appointing directors from diverse cultural backgrounds.

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