The fund has previously defended its right to comment on public policy issues.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has given the New Zealand Superannuation Fund a clear message to stop talking to the news media about policy issues.
But his office said there is nothing new in the direction and that Robertson has previously told the fund to refrain from public debate on government policies.
In his latest letter of expectations to the fund’s outgoing chair Catherine Savage – dated December 22 last year – he wrote that he welcomed discussions with her on policy settings to deliver on the fund’s mandate.
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Houses under construction in the Israeli settlement of Eldad, south of Bethlehem, December 2019. Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank is a war crime. (Trocaire)
New Zealand’s $33 billion national pension fund has excluded five Israeli banks from its portfolio because of their role in financing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
An assessment by the NZ Super Fund concludes that holding shares in Israel’s biggest banks would violate its responsible investment policy.
The document cites New Zealand’s 2016 vote for UN Security Council resolution 2334 which reaffirms the illegality of the settlements, as well as statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he intends to proceed with large-scale annexations of occupied Palestinian land.