Australia appoints former minister to head sovereign wealth fund

Australia appoints former minister to head sovereign wealth fund

By Lewis Jackson

Australia's centre-left Labor government on Monday said it would appoint a former climate change minister to chair the A$212 billion ($139 billion) sovereign wealth fund, the second successive ex-minister to hold the position.

Greg Combet, who held the Climate Change portfolio in a Labor government when he left parliament in 2013, and went on to chair IFM Investors, a A$216 billion infrastructure investor, will start his five-year term at the Future Fund around mid-year, according to a statement from Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Until then, Combet will continue as chair of the Net Zero Economy Agency, which oversees Australia's net zero transition plans, Chalmers said. Future Fund board member Mary Reemst has been appointed acting chair until he begins the role.

"Mr Combet has a distinguished career and extensive experience in investment and superannuation, government and the climate and energy transformation," Chalmers said in a statement.

Started in 2006 by then Treasurer Peter Costello with proceeds from the privatisation of state telco Telstra, the Future Fund today rivals the country's largest pension funds in size.

Costello, who served in several centre-right Liberal Party governments, has chaired the fund since 2014. In one of his final speeches last November, he urged government to resist using the fund to support political projects.

The comments were made amid calls from the centre-left government for the country's pension sector to invest in a domestic priorities like clean energy and affordable housing.