Media Release - For Immediate Release
14 November 2006
NZ Government Invests in Environmental Destruction and Human Rights Abuses
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is investing in US mining giant Freeport McMoRan despite questions over the
company's human rights and environmental record in West Papua.
The Wellington West Papua Rights Group questions how the NZ public can take the Government's stated commitments to human
rights and environmental sustainability seriously, when this investment clearly runs against their policy on ethical
investment.
"The New Zealand public has a right to know where its funds are going and what they are supporting. Are environmental
destruction and the suppression of the human rights now government policy?" said Wellington West Papua Rights Group
member George Darroch.
Freeport McRoRan continues to be a significant supporter of the Indonesian government's occupation of West Papua,
despite well documented and ongoing human rights abuses. The subsidiary mining company PT Freeport Indonesia has been
implicated in supporting directly the Indonesian military (TNI) with significant financial assistance, and use of
equipment, even as the military suppresses indigenous populations with violence. The company has not been held to
account for its role in human rights abuses.
WAHLI, Indonesia's leading environmental organisation, has documented the environmental destruction caused by the
operations of the mining company. The most serious is the daily discharge of over 200,000 tonnes of toxic tailings into
the Ajkwa River, which have very severe impacts on the river, wildlife, and Arafura Sea. The company has been sued in
the past, and is being threatened with legal action by the Indonesian Government for its illegal environmental
destruction.
The Wellington West Papua Rights Group says the New Zealand Government should take their stated commitments to human
rights and environmental sustainability seriously, and maintain a policy of ethical investment. "This has been done by
some of the world's largest pension funds, including those of the Governments of South Africa and Norway, and there is
nothing stopping it happening here" said George Darroch.
ENDS