Union backs Boral in emissions bunfight
The boss of one of Australia’s largest unions has cautioned investment funds against pushing too hard for large manufacturers in hard-to-abate industries to cut emissions faster than offshore rivals.
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow called for a commonsense approach, built around steadily decarbonising without putting Australia’s industrial base at risk.
“There’s no point hounding industry to the point of leaving, because demand doesn’t disappear,” Mr Farrow said on Wednesday.
Cement is a key manufacturing product that is difficult to produce while also lowering greenhouse emissions. Louie Douvis
“For every factory that closes here, a new factory pops up in countries with a far less promising path to net zero than Australia”.
He was speaking ahead of what could be a torrid annual meeting on Thursday for one of Australia’s largest cement producers, Boral. The $9 billion fund manager Australian Ethical Investment was among a group of investors who sent a letter to the Boral board urging faster emissions reduction and disappointment the company in August had dialled back a self-imposed reduction target for 2025. The investors, including HESTA, AMP, and Plato Investment Management, warned that Boral’s revised 2025 target and its current reconsideration of 2030 goals risked undermining its long-term value.
Ryan Stokes, the chairman of Boral since 2021, will preside over the annual meeting in Sydney, where some funds have been threatening to vote against resolutions as a protest. Mr Stokes, the son of billionaire Kerry Stokes, also heads Seven Group, which owns almost 73 per cent of Boral.
“When it comes to energy-intensive industries Australians need to be playing a smart, long game,” Mr Farrow said.
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