Australia: No Business in Abuse
‘No Business in Abuse’ was set up in 2015 by a small, independent team of campaigners to end private sector involvement in Australia’s offshore detention regime.
‘No Business in Abuse’ was set up in 2015 by a small, independent team of campaigners to end private sector involvement in Australia’s offshore detention regime. Eighteen months after the campaign’s launch, and after extensive conversations in the financial sector and a sustained effort by members of the Australian Services Union, the superannuation fund HESTA divested $23 million (AUD) from Broadspectrum (then known as Transfield) over contracts to operate detention camps on Manus Island (a province of Papua New Guinea) and the small island nation of Nauru. The campaign ended in a hostile takeover of Broadspectrum in mid-2016 by Spanish multinational Ferrovial, which then announced its decision not to renew detention center contracts. Inspired by a smaller pledge that was used by the South African apartheid boycott movement, the No Business in Abuse pledge defines the key principles for a non-abusive company. The aim of the pledge was to provide a key set of principles to create the basis on which divestment would occur. In essence, the pledge set out the fundamental source to guide investors in their divestment decisions.
