Jason and Jo are HESTA members who have personally experienced the impacts of climate disasters in Australia. They want their super fund HESTA to stop greenwashing and take strong action to protect the climate.
HESTA is an industry super fund for workers in the health and community services sectors.
The fund’s members are among those who work on the front lines of climate-induced disasters, yet despite this HESTA continues to invest its members’ retirement savings in the very companies making these disasters worse: companies building new coal, oil and gas projects.
Jason is a mental health clinician and HESTA member. He has experienced the impacts of climate induced disasters personally and through his work with people suffering the mental health impacts of heatwaves and bushfires.
Jason grew up in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. He recalls his memories of the fires that were a frequent experience there, and the worry he feels about his mum’s home every summer.
“I have pretty clear, vivid memories of the smoke and the heat. The flames just everywhere. A lot of my friends lost their homes and my mum’s home was under threat as well.
“Through a change of the wind at the last minute, her home wasn't lost.… I still worry about it every summer.”
Jo Dodds experienced the impacts of climate disaster first-hand when her home was threatened by the Tathra bushfire in 2018.
Her house and community were again under threat from the black summer bushfires in 2020 which caused widespread devastation for people, nature and wildlife across huge areas of eastern Australia.
Jo says “I braced myself to lose everything. My grandmother’s jewellery, not valuable enough to insure but priceless to me. All my family photos, my identity documents, tax records. Every piece of creative writing I’d ever written.
“The beautiful bedspreads my mother had crocheted for me. The last letter she wrote me before she died. Precious items which can’t be replaced.”
“That day I realised climate change wasn’t just a future threat. It was a catastrophe, right here and now, destroying homes and businesses, tearing families and communities apart.
In the end we didn’t lose our house. The wind simply stopped blowing and the fire became manageable. But 69 other families weren’t so lucky. Many of them lost everything.”
Jo's home and possessions were not the only precious things she almost lost. She recalls seeing her horse Raf as she raced to protect her home:
“As the Tathra fire took hold I drove past his paddock on my way towards my home. I have a vivid memory of seeing him standing in the bone dry paddock, knowing there was no chance to move him somewhere safer, and wishing him well. The fire came within about 2 kilometres.”
Jo sees a clear link between the impacts of climate disasters and the choices our super funds are making in how they invest our retirement savings.
HESTA has hundreds of millions of dollars of its members’ retirement savings invested in Santos and Woodside, Australia’s two largest oil and gas companies. Despite claiming to support global climate goals, HESTA has been failing to use the influence it could wield as a major shareholder to demand an end to Santos and Woodside’s oil and gas expansion plans. Meanwhile, both companies continue to progress their plans for new oil and gas production, threatening decades of further climate-wrecking pollution.
That’s why a growing movement of HESTA members, including Jason and Jo, are calling for the fund to end its financial support for new fossil fuels.
In his work as a mental health clinician, Jason has seen the severe impacts that climate disasters have on people’s mental health.
“The 2020 heatwave and bushfires were some of the worst and most difficult times for us working in mental health.
“People don't know that most of the spikes and presentations to hospital departments are actually from people having acute mental health problems from heatwaves. And the bushfire smoke.”
Jason expresses his disappointment in HESTA’s failure to address members’ concerns about the companies the fund is investing in, including the fossil fuel producers making climate disasters worse:
Motivated by the devastation she had witnessed, Jo co-founded Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, an organisation that amplifies the voices of people who have been impacted by bushfires and calls for an end to fossil fuel use for the safety and well-being of all communities.
The Australian Government is not the only entity with the power to make decisions that can have a big impact on the emissions that drive climate change.
Our super funds still invest billions of dollars in the coal, oil and gas companies making climate change worse, and, as major shareholders, have the power to influence these companies to phase out their polluting activities.
“My superannuation provider, along with almost all Aussie funds, are still investing our precious retirement savings in the fossil fuel sector. That means my super is investing in industries that are increasing the risk of my family home burning down.”
But Jo says without pressure from members, super funds won’t be motivated to act.
“That’s why I’ve joined a growing chorus of fund members and organisations like Market Forces, asking HESTA and all superannuation funds to get out of companies expanding fossil fuel developments.”
“For me, recovering from the fires has been about doing what I can to prevent climate emissions.
We can all make a stand to protect our most precious assets by calling our super funds, banks and insurers to account.”
Jason is calling on other super fund members to take action. He points out that collectively, we have the power to make our funds listen and act.
“I think we need to start bringing more collective pressure on our super funds in our workplaces and in our unions to try and change their investment approaches. But I know that the super funds are also concerned about individual feedback. So if you're concerned about what your money's being used for… [I] encourage individual people to reach out to their super fund, ask questions.”
Are you a HESTA member? You can learn more and raise your concerns with the fund here:
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