ANZ continues to fund companies producing dodgy cluster
munitions
The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, Uniting Church in Australia
(UCAVT), has strongly
criticised the ANZ bank for continuing to provide finance to companies that produce cluster
munitions.
Australia, along with most countries, has signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which
seeks to ban the manufacture, trade and use of these terrible weapons.
Cluster munitions have created humanitarian problems in every conflict they have been used
and have killed and maimed thousands of civilians, mostly after the conflict has ended.
The ANZ Bank has a policy that it will not directly fund the production of cluster munitions or
landmines but continues to provide finance to companies engaged in such activities.
“The ANZ is trying to have its cake and eat it. They don’t want to be seen to be to facilitating
the production of cluster munitions, but they still want to profit from being able to provide
loans to companies involved in producing these dodgy weapons”, said Dr Mark Zirnsak,
social justice spokesperson for the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania.
“The reality is that to provide finance to one part of a company still frees up funds for
all the activities the company is involved in. The ANZ cannot pretend that its hands
are clean.”
A report has just been released by IKV Pax Christi and Netwerk Vlaanderen, Worldwide
investments in CLUSTER MUNITIONS a shared responsibility, which names the ANZ as the
only major Australian bank that has provided finance to a company manufacturing cluster
munitions that would be banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
“We call on the ANZ to join financial institutions like AXA, ING, KBC and the Royal Bank of
Canada and exclude companies manufacturing cluster munitions from those the bank will do
business with,” Dr Zirnsak said.
UCA Funds Management, an operating entity of the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of
Victoria and Tasmania operates the UCA Growth Fund, the Uniting Growth Fund and the
UCA Cash Management Fund, all of which have investments in the ANZ Banking Group
(shares and Floating Rate Notes). It seeks to engage with companies in which it invests to
encourage compliance with the Synod’s ethical investment policy.
In July 2007, as the ANZ was in discussion with the Uniting Church about past loans to
companies manufacturing cluster munitions, the ANZ provided US$37.5 million in a five-year
revolving credit facility to US cluster munition manufacturer Lockheed Martin. At no point did
the ANZ disclose that it was in the process of providing such finance as an on-going activity.
A cluster munition (or cluster bomb) is a weapon containing multiple –
often hundreds –
of
small explosive submunitions or bomblets. Cluster munitions are dropped from the air or fired
from the ground by artillery or missiles and are designed to break open in mid-air, releasing
the submunitions over an area that can be the size of several football fields. Many
submunitions fail to explode on impact and remain a threat to lives and livelihoods for
decades.
Media comment – Dr Mark Zirnsak, social justice spokesperson, UCAVT, 0409 166 915
NEWS 
