The Greens Super Fund

I have previously blogged on how the Greens Super Fund buys houses near Parliament, and then rents them out to their own MPs so that taxpayers will pay up to $24,000 a year rent to their super fund. It is legal under Parliament’s rules but a clear conflict of interest when you are effectively both landlord and tenant – but with Parliament paying the bills.

The Herald reveals today another conflict:

A taxpayer-funded Green Party pre-Budget brochure promoted a company in which its “Green Futures” superannuation scheme is a shareholder without disclosing the interest.

The brochure on the party’s jobs stimulus package “Green New Deal” was paid for by Parliamentary Services and went to about 300,000 homes before the Budget last month.

It included an article about a worker at wind turbine manufacturer Windflow Technology as an example of jobs in a company in “a new green economy”.

The party’s Green Futures Super Trust holds about 6000 shares in the company out of 12 million shares. The shares are are worth $1.82 each. No mention of its interest was included in the article.

Not a good look. Of course they did not mention it to increase their share price, but disclosure of the conflict would have prevented any criticism.