ANZ shareholders encouraged to act

Community protesters inform ANZ customers and the public of ANZ's potential role in funding Gunns' pulp mill, Sydney.

The Wilderness Society is encouraging shareholders of Gunns Ltd’s banker, ANZ Bank, to get in touch and form a syndicate of concerned shareholders who have the power to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) should ANZ fund Gunns’ pulp mill in Tasmania.

Click here for an open letter to ANZ shareholders seeking their support to hold the EGM.

If ANZ funds or organises finance for the pulp mill project, it will demonstrate serious systemic failures in the bank’s environmental, social and economic investment policies. They will then have serious questions to answer from shareholders who expect the bank to act on environmental and social responsibility, and not just use it as greenwash.

Australia’s Corporations Act 2001 has provisions aimed at ensuring that the will of shareholders is reflected in the running of their company. EGMs give shareholders the opportunity to express their will and to obtain critical information. To force an EGM, the commitment of 100 shareholders is needed.

Polls have consistently shown that the majority of the Australian public are opposed to Gunns’ forest-hungry pulp mill because of its predicted environmental, social and economic impacts.

Similarly, it is likely that the majority of people who own shares in ANZ would hold major concerns about the pulp mill project, both from an economic risk point of view, and the impact ANZ’s support for the project could have on their investment.

If you own shares in ANZ, you have a critical role to play in deciding on the future of our forests, climate and economy.

For more information about the pulp mill project or the EGM, please contact The Wilderness Society Tasmania on (03) 6224 1550, or email pulpmill@wilderness.org.au

Click here to download the open letter to ANZ shareholders.

Regardless of whether you are an ANZ shareholder or not, you are encouraged to take action and sign the Pulp Mill Pledge. The Pledge was launched at Hobart's massive rally attended by 15,000 people in November 2007, and around 7000 people have signed it since.

Sign the pledge now