Independent review needed into financial risk management
Investors are unable to guarantee that financial risk is being appropriately managed unless there is an independent review of agreements between mining companies and Traditional Owners, HESTA believes.
Following the Juukan Gorge scandal, the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s Interim Report recommended all mining companies that operated in Western Australia should conduct independent reviews of their agreements with Traditional Owners.
They should also publicly commit to avoid using gag orders to prevent Traditional Owners from protecting their rights and raising heritage concerns.
HESTA said it “strongly supported” the inquiry’s recommendation that companies with current Section 18 permissions halted all operations unless it could be established and verified that there was current, free, prior and informed consent obtained from Traditional Owners.
HESTA chief executive, Debby Blakey, said the findings highlighted that mining companies often lacked adequate oversight and effective governance frameworks.
“The inescapable findings of the inquiry are that Aboriginal Heritage sites remain vulnerable to destruction. It would be unacceptable to investors that boards of mining companies are not actively and transparently seeking to understand their exposure to this risk,” Blakey said.
“After all that has occurred at Rio, the boards of mining companies need to show investors that they have appropriate oversight and effective governance frameworks in place to ensure respectful, fair and ongoing engagement with Traditional Owners.”
She said the recommendations that Rio should pay restitution and implement a moratorium on mining in the Juukan Gorge area highlighted the financial consequences of a company’s actions.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Laura Dew is editor at Super Review. Prior to joining SR, she spent five years working at Investment Week in the UK covering asset and wealth management.
Recommended for you
Super trustees need to be prepared for the potential that the AI rise could cause billions of assets to shift in superannuation, according to an academic from the University of Technology Sydney.
AMP’s superannuation business has returned to outflows in the third quarter of 2025 after reporting its first positive cash flow since 2017 last quarter.
The major changes to the proposed $3 million super tax legislation have been welcomed across the superannuation industry.
In holding the cash rate steady in September, the RBA has judged that policy remains restrictive even as housing and credit growth gather pace.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
215.17 3 y p.a(%)
2
Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund Hedged
118.15 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
75.00 3 y p.a(%)
4
UBS Solactive Global Pure Gold Miners UCITS ETF Dis USD
61.11 3 y p.a(%)
5
Global X Ultra Long Nasdaq 100 Complex ETF
60.93 3 y p.a(%)
