In an article at Croakey last year, mental health nurse Veronique Hamilton called on HESTA, the leading super fund for health workers, to end its support for fossil fuel expansion and take stronger action to protect the climate.
While HESTA has since taken some action to address climate concerns, more action is needed, Hamilton writes below.
“HESTA must go further and publicly challenge Santos and its focus on oil and gas growth, which poses untold health and climate risks,” she says. “These fossil fuel companies and their directors must be held to account.”
Veronique Hamilton writes:
Healthcare is built on principles that have guided our professions for generations: protecting life, preventing harm, promoting wellbeing and acting in the best interests of those we serve. Those values shouldn’t end when we finish our shift.
As the super fund representing Australia’s health and community service workforce, HESTA’s investment decisions should reflect the same commitment to protecting people’s health and future wellbeing.
HESTA tells its members: “We invest in and for people like you, who make our world better – so your super can have real impact.”
For health professionals who entrust HESTA with their retirement savings, those words matter. They reflect the values that draw many of us to healthcare: improving lives, reducing harm and contributing to a healthier future.
Those values should be reflected not only in HESTA’s messaging, but in its investment decisions.
In April this year, for the first time, HESTA issued a statement that publicly challenged Woodside’s oil and gas growth strategy at the company’s annual general meeting in Perth. The challenge came after sustained advocacy from thousands of members, health professionals and organisations.
By questioning Woodside’s approach to climate risk management and preparedness for the energy transition, HESTA took an important first step, as reported by clean energy finance advocacy organisation, Market Forces.
HESTA showed members that their voices matter and demonstrated a willingness to publicly hold fossil fuel companies to account.
More action needed
But recognising the problem is only the beginning.
Health professionals understand that identifying a risk without taking meaningful action to reduce it is not enough. In healthcare, we don’t simply acknowledge that something is harmful – we intervene. Prevention sits at the heart of what we do because we know acting early protects lives.
As a long-term shareholder in Woodside and Santos, HESTA has influence. Publicly challenging Woodside was an important first step, demonstrating that HESTA is prepared to use its voice on behalf of members.
The next step is to use that influence more broadly, by making clear that continued fossil fuel expansion is inconsistent with protecting members’ long-term interests and the health of communities.
This includes companies such as Santos and its continued pursuit of new oil and gas developments across Australia – including fracking Beetaloo in the Northern Territory – which risks locking in decades of additional emissions at a time when we need to accelerate the transition to a cleaner and healthier future.
HESTA must step up its advocacy and demand that Woodside and Santos deliver and implement a climate transition plan that includes an end to developing new fossil fuels.
Mental health matters
As a mental health nurse, this issue is deeply personal.
Throughout my career, both in clinical mental health roles and delivering mental health promotion and education, I have worked with individuals and communities living through the aftermath of natural disasters. I have supported people whose homes, livelihoods and sense of safety have been threatened by bushfires, floods and destructive storms.
While damaged buildings can eventually be repaired, the psychological impacts often persist for years. Anxiety, grief, trauma, financial stress and uncertainty do not disappear once the immediate crisis has passed.
I have also worked alongside farming communities facing immense pressure from prolonged drought, changing weather patterns and increasing climate uncertainty. The cumulative stress takes an enormous toll on mental health, relationships and community wellbeing. These are not isolated stories – they are becoming increasingly common across Australia.
Climate change is no longer simply an environmental issue. It is one of the defining health challenges of our time, and the consequences are already presenting in our clinics, hospitals and communities.
That is why HESTA’s decisions matter.
More than a million health and community service workers entrust HESTA with their retirement savings. We expect our super fund to reflect the same values that guide us every day in our work: preventing harm, protecting life and acting in the best interests of the communities we serve.
Health professionals do not have the luxury of ignoring risks because the solutions are complex. We assess the evidence, we act early and we do everything we can to prevent harm.
Leadership needed
HESTA has shown leadership by publicly challenging Woodside. Now it must build on that leadership by using its influence to ensure the companies it invests in are aligned with protecting the health of communities and future generations.
This means moving beyond acknowledging climate risks and ensuring investment decisions reflect the values that underpin the healthcare profession.
After my previous article was published in Croakey, a coalition of organisations representing more than one million health workers called on HESTA to increase its climate action by taking a firmer position against new fossil fuels.
HESTA is listening and starting to take effective action by speaking up for health workers to ensure companies like Woodside rein in oil and gas growth misaligned with the Paris Agreement and a healthy climate.
But HESTA must go further and publicly challenge Santos and its focus on oil and gas growth, which poses untold health and climate risks. These fossil fuel companies and their directors must be held to account.
We chose healthcare because we believe in protecting life, preventing harm and improving wellbeing. We expect our super fund to reflect those same principles.
Author details
Veronique Hamilton is a credentialed mental health nurse and founder of a business, Exploring Minds, who has worked as a Mental Health Postgraduate Coordinator, Mental Health Promotion Officer, in addition to clinical roles in multidisciplinary teams and settings.
Previously at Croakey: As climate pressures mount, HESTA urged to put health first
See Croakey’s archive of articles on fossil fuels and health
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