urg::: Westpac Staff Super changes its SRI policy on uranium

[Len Kanaar - FoE Sydney]

The Financial Standard

Westpac Staff Super changes its SRI policy on uranium

Tuesday, 20 Sep 2005 10:23AM

Westpac Staff Super has dropped its Socially Responsible Investment 
(SRI) policy ban on uranium mining stocks, to exclude only those 
companies who mine it 'directly' for weapons manufacture.

The change to the company's SRI policy, in place since August, shows 
a shift in the company's previously tightly reigned exclusion of 
stocks, it deemed "socially irresponsible".

Companies trading in alcohol, tobacco or weapons have in the past 
been 'negatively screened' by the Westpac's SRI policy in a bid to 
invest in environmentally sustainable and socially responsible stocks.

The change in Westpac's attitude to uranium comes at an interesting 
time, as it trades at an all time high due to the current resources 
boom, oil shortages, and the demand being driven by the large number 
of reactors going up across China and India.

Stocks in mining companies are booming, with shares in Cameco the 
world's biggest Uranium miner, rising 68 per cent last year, while 
Energy Resources of Australia, 68 percent-owned by the Rio Tinto 
Group, surged 94 percent. Paladin Resources, an Australian company 
with plans to mine uranium in Namibia, rose ninefold.

The surging price of uranium happens to also coincide with a shift 
within environmental and political circles. Traditionally uranium was 
eschewed as a serious environmental hazard but there has been a 
swathe of recent arguments that suggest it is not as risky as 
previously suspected while security and secure maintainance is also 
now considered to be more manageable than was previoulsy accepted.

In any event, the liberalisation of Westpac's SRI screening begs the 
question whether the company can actually guarantee where uranium 
goes after it is pulled from the ground and what it is subsequently 
used for.