Australia’s sovereign wealth fund asked the government to alter the language in a proposed new investment mandate, documents released under a Freedom of Information request showed.
The government announced a new mandate for the A$230 billion ($195.42 billion) Future Fund in November that required it to consider national priorities — including clean energy, housing and infrastructure projects — in its investment decisions.
Heavily redacted documents provide glimpses of consultations on the mandate, with participants including Future Fund Board of Guardians Chair Greg Combet and Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy. The Future Fund is sometimes referred to as the Agency in the documents.
The “Mandate, as currently drafted, states that the Board must consider national priorities, whereas the Agency would like the direction to state that the Board should consider national priorities,” an Aug 21 briefing note showed. The documents were first reported by the Australian Financial Review.
When it released the final version of the mandate in November, the government said the Future Fund was required “to consider Australia’s national priorities in its investment decisions, where possible, appropriate and consistent with strong returns”. It didn’t amend the Future Fund’s benchmark rate of return, which stayed at 4%-5% above inflation.
The Future Fund also told the government it would prefer its national priorities to “align to specific sectors, rather than the Future Made in Australia streams” being lobbied by the government. The Future Made in Australia plan aims to support local manufacturing by attracting investment to key sectors including clean energy.
