“Let me be Frank with you …”Oooh, no thanks.

A competition for everyone (and not just members) to put a smile on faces in 2008

Well, The Hon Frank Sartor, Minister for Planning, can't be offensive to local government generally (and building surveyors in particular) and think that people aren't going to be unhappy. The Honourable Minister, if he wants to dish it out, has to be prepared to take it too.

It's hard to come back to work in summer, so to get the year off in the right mood we announce an exciting new competition.

What do you think "let me be Frank with you", could mean?

Just to get you thinking, it could mean:

It could also mean so much more. This is something to have fun with and you can use this link to enter this competition. There will be two prizes worth having – one for a depa member and one for those many hundreds of people who enjoy our website but are not members, with the best suggestion for what being Frank really means.

The judge’s decision will be final and, because this is meant to be fun, we won't publish obscene or defamatory entries, but that won't disqualify the entry. We'll publish them if we can - subject to legal advice, of course. We might even, depending on what sort of entries we get, let you see some of the suggestions in the next Bulletin in February - so when you enter you have the opportunity of being identified or not identified if we publish your suggestion. No one really wants to get on the Honourable Minister's bad side, after all.

 

Minister’s office rejects depa’s application under FOI and we file an appeal (back)

In our December Bulletin we reported that depa had made an application under the Freedom of Information Act for access to:

(i) Draft bill or bills arising from, leading to or incorporating all or any of the proposals set out in the Discussion Paper "IMPROVING the NSW planning system" dated November 2007.

(ii) Draft legislation arising from, leading to or incorporated all or any of the proposals set out in the Discussion Paper "IMPROVING the NSW planning system" dated November 2007.

(iii) Draft Explanatory Memorandum or Memoranda or draft legislation leading to or incorporating all or any of the proposals set out in the Discussion Paper “IMPROVING the NSW planning system" dated November 2007.

(iv) Instructions to Parliamentary Counsel as to the drafting of bills and/or legislation and/or explanatory memorandum or memoranda arising from, leading to or incorporating all or any of the proposals set out in the Discussion Paper "IMPROVING the NSW planning system" dated November 2007.

This was posted as registered mail from Five Dock post office on Friday 14 December. Ordinarily this would have arrived at Governor Macquarie Tower on Monday 17 December. Well, sadly no one at GMT would receive the registered mail (we won't put the next one in an envelope with our logo) and it was not until 24 December that the application was stamped received in the Minister's office.

That would be fairly dispiriting for Australia Post because their records show that it was received at GMT on 20 December but it took four days for the application to make its way to Level 34. They must have known it was coming.

A bit like the EP&A Act, where 40 days can constitute a deemed refusal for a development application, the FOI Act provides that it is a deemed refusal if there is no response within 21 days. If only councils could refuse to accept registered applications like the Minister's office did between 17 and 20 December or fail to register an application’s receipt until it had actually been in the building for four days.

Twenty-one days after the application was stamped "received" in the Minister’s Office, a courier hand-delivered a rejection of our application from the Minister’s FOI Coordinator.

On Friday 18 January depa filed an appeal in the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. In refusing access to the documents sought, the Minister’s office had accepted that the draft documents existed. Anyone who attended the public "consultation" briefings provided by the Department of Planning would have known that anyway. It all looks like a done deal.

Essentially the grounds for the appeal are these:

It's also in the public interest that genuine public participation in the processes of government decision-making be promoted, transparent and accountable. You can see the copy of our appeal, including the reasons for rejection by the Minister’s office, here

At a time of stock-market crises, here is some good news about LGSS (back)

But first, something about all the money "lost" on the stock exchange.

It is hard to avoid hearing about the economy and financial performance these days. Daily news has special segments on what's happened to the market, political parties think it's the most important issue imaginable and the media behaves as if it is. In particular, the media encourages those with superannuation accounts (and that’s all of us) to panic about the implications of the "$46 billion lost "that day.

This is not real money. People only lose money if they're selling when the market is low and members of superannuation funds can be secure and comforted by the fact that their funds are long-term investors, with properly diversified portfolios to manage risk and every expectation that what goes down today will come back tomorrow or over the long term.

But here is some really good news.

Good News 1: LGSS nominated as Sustainable Super Fund of the Year (back)

The Sustainable Investment Association nominated LGSS for the inaugural award of Sustainable Super Fund of the Year. LGSS has taken bold steps since 2000 to commit to investing in sustainable companies, introduce sustainable practices in its directly held property, become more involved in the good governance of those companies in which it invests, not own dreadful environmental vandals like Gunns, signing up and endorsing the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) etc.

These steps have actually made the fund money, proving that you can invest in a sustainable way without damaging your primary objective of good retirement incomes for members.

The information provided by the LGSS to the Sustainable Investment Association in support of the nomination follows. Regrettably, the inaugural Award was given to VicSuper, a fund doing similar things to LGSS but one with more designated resources to this important consideration (and something the LGSS is trying to do something about now) and one with a more committed focus on publicising their achievements.

This was our nomination:

The Local Government Superannuation Scheme (LGSS) has been committed to the concept of sustainable investment long before it became more mainstream.

Established in July 1997, the Board resolved in 2000 to never own tobacco shares and in 2001 resolved to cautiously expanded this attitude to operate an overlay on its entire Australian equities portfolio - actively removing from the portfolio any shareholding in companies involved in old-growth logging, uranium mining/nuclear technologies, armaments, gambling or those with poor environmental, social or governance practices.

The shares are replaced by ownership of companies with a high sustainability rating.

This overlay has contributed more than $10 million in additional investment performance to members since its inception and, amongst other things, allows LGSS to be the only industry of government superannuation scheme in Australia but does not own shares in Gunns. This is a source of considerable pride. International equities next.

In adopting a commitment to sustainability, LGSS significantly rejected the concept of providing a sustainable investment choice to members, preferring to take a broader approach to all investment.

LGSS is a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment and expresses this commitment through engagement (just like everyone else does) but also by excluding ownership of certain companies. LGSS is enthusiastic in advocating that signing up to UNPRI must involve, at some stage, refusing to hold shares in companies which breach those principles. This is not yet a mainstream attitude, but LGSS is confident that over time, it will be.

LGSS is a foundation member of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) and through ACSI is an active proxy voter of its shares. LGSS is also one of the eight superannuation funds and financial institutions that established Regnan this year - a specialist governance and engagement adviser.

LGSS is committed to sustainability in managing its $500 million direct property portfolio. Since July 2007, the ten directly held properties have exclusively used clean renewable energy and LGSS is actively encouraging tenants to do similarly by providing advice to assist in the reduction of energy consumption and offset any additional costs associated with transferring to clean energy.

This clean energy step builds on years of capital spending programmes to reduce the carbon footprint and water consumption of all properties.

Other direct investments held by LGSS (including private equity) are "screened" to ensure that they do not conflict with its sustainability policy.

LGSS is a signatory to the Carbon Disclosure Project and a member of the Sustainable Investments Association. It promotes its views and unique approach to sustainable investment widely to members and tries to infect others with this enthusiasm through industry forums.

LGSS is proud to be a finalist in the category of 2007 Sustainable Super Fund of the year.

Good News 2: Knocking Co 2 off the old office block (back)

Here is an article printed in the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday Dec 13 about the LGSS joining up with other "property giants" and committing to improving the sustainability of property portfolios. Members of the LGSS should be comforted that returns are competitive but that major steps are being taken to complements good financial returns with sustainable environmental achievements.

Good News 3: If you’re interested in sustainability… (back)

The Secretary is also, through his role as a trustee on LGSS, Chair of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees.

The Secretary has pushed the sustainability agenda on the LGSS and, if you would like to know what he thinks about the responsibilities of superannuation board trustees when it comes to climate change and it’s effect on investment, you can use this link.

depa Golf Day 2008: Will Bankstown retain the depa Cup? (back)

The depa Golf Day will be held again this year on metropolitan councils union picnic day, Friday 14 March, at Blackheath Golf Club.

This will be our fourth golf day (and again be sponsored by FuturePlus Financial Services) and the day is always oversubscribed. This year we will limit the day to 25 teams of four.

This day is open to all members, those who can play golf and those that can't and members from outside the metropolitan area are encouraged to join us for what it is always a great day. Blackheath is a beautiful course and golf is, after all, a walk enhanced.

You can email jody@depa.net.au to reserve yourself a team on the day. Please tell her the number of teams you would like, the handicap for each person in the team and their full name and council. Please try and nominate only one person per council to act as the “Official Golf Day Contact” with the office or it can get very messy.

 

Ian Robertson

Secretary