'Ethical' super's deadly weapons | ABC Investigations and Digital Story Innovation

Almost all Australia’s major superannuation funds offer their customers an "ethical" or "sustainable" branded investment option that promises not to invest their retirement savings industries such as fossil fuels, tobacco, gambling and weapons.
But an ABC investigation has discovered some of these funds - including one run by Australia’s biggest fund - have invested millions of dollars of their customers’ retirement savings into companies that make some of the most controversial and devastating weapons of war.
Since 2022, all Australian super funds have been required to publish half-yearly disclosures that tell members how they invest their retirement savings.
These are spreadsheets published on the funds’ websites that list their investments, including shares, cash deposits, bonds and property.
The ABC compiled the most recent disclosures, which show the funds’ holdings at the end of December last year, into a single data set.
We then compared these disclosures to a list of companies involved in “controversial weapons” provided by financial analysis firm Morningstar.
While there is no agreed industry definition of “controversial weapon”, Morningstar’s classification captures companies that make money from nuclear weapons, anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs, chemical and biological weapons, depleted uranium weapons and white phosphorus bombs.
The investigation found ethical, socially aware and sustainable branded options held more than $27 million worth of shares in companies classified as being involved in controversial weapons at December 31.
They held a further $34 million in shares of companies more broadly involved in firearms manufacturing and weapons contracting to the military.
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