Briggs sends “please explain” to ANU
Green activism is starting to bite at the top corporate tables and federal minister and South Australian MP for Mayo Jamie Briggs says he’s had enough.
Briggs has today written to the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, Ian Young, demanding an explanation for the university’s decision to withdraw investment funds in fossil fuel companies, including Adelaide-headquartered Santos.
The ANU council announced Monday it had approved a proposal by Young to divest stocks held by its investment arm in seven companies following an independent review of ANU domestic equities.
Its “Socially Responsible Investment Policy” meant ANU would dump its holdings in Iluka Resources, Independence Group, Newcrest Mining, Sandfire Resources, Oil Search, Santos and Sirius Resources.
On Tuesday Premier Jay Weatherill slammed the decision, defending Santos and Iluka as “excellent corporate citizens”.
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“It’s a very strange assessment of social responsibility,” the Premier said.
Briggs has gone one step further, questioning the university’s research abilities.
“This is a sandstone institution which prides itself on its research programs, where you test your thesis, give reasons for it and ask others for an opinion on it,” Briggs told InDaily.
“In this case, they made the assessment of Santos, gave no reasons, did not inform Santos of the decision, gave Santos no opportunity to respond and didn’t even inform Santos they were going to be named on the front pages of newspapers.
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“It’s green activism gone mad.
“It’s the last thing South Australia’s struggling economy needs.”
While Santos ponders its position, the world’s largest toymaker Lego says it’s been forced to end a deal with oil giant Shell, bowing to pressure from a Greenpeace campaign linking Lego toys to Arctic oil spills.
Announcing the decision to stop the multi-million-dollar marketing deal – which includes Lego sales in Shell petrol stations around the world, and Shell logos on the toys – Lego chief executive Joergen Vig Knudstorp said “we do not want to be part of Greenpeace’s campaign”.
Since July more than five million people have viewed a Greenpeace video on YouTube entitled “Everything is NOT Awesome” – featuring Arctic Lego landscapes dotted with oil rigs, polar bears and children playing ice hockey – until they are all drowned in oil.
The only thing left is a Shell flag and the slogan “Shell is polluting our kids’ imagination”.
“The Greenpeace campaign uses the Lego brand to target Shell. As we have stated before, we firmly believe Greenpeace ought to have a direct conversation with Shell,” Vig Knudstorp said in a statement published in Danish daily Politiken on Thursday, adding the Shell deal would end when the current contract expires.
“The Lego brand, and everyone who enjoys creative play, should never have become part of Greenpeace’s dispute with Shell.”
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