Mr Littleproud called ANZ "out of touch" and its statement "disgraceful", and said regional Australians should reconsider using banks which impose "crippling new carbon targets" on farming families and the agriculture industry.
ANZ recently announced a push to exit from thermal coal, a promise to support Australia’s transition to a net zero emission economy by 2050, and only financing the construction of large-scale office buildings with 5-star energy ratings.
The statement has been targeted by the Nationals for being too much — and copped flak from environmental groups for not going far enough.
Mr Littleproud said banks should not be “society’s moral compass”.
“We can’t let unelected, profit-driven financiers from Pitt St dictate to society how to produce food and fibre or how we run our economy,” he said.
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said the idea that ANZ would be shifting support away from farmers was “absolutely not the case”.
“ANZ’s climate change statement is focused on the top 100 carbon emitters, and will have no impact on the bank’s farm gate lending practices,” Mr Elliott said.
Mr Littleproud admitted ANZ had explained to him that farmers weren’t affected by its climate statement.
“While ANZ has confirmed with me this morning that this will not impact family farms this policy is disgraceful,” he said.
“It shows just how out of touch ANZ is about how our regional communities live and work”.
The statement can be viewed on page 110 of the full year results investor package, readable here: https://www.anz.com/content/dam/anzcom/shareholder/2020-Full-Year-Results-Investor-Discussion-Pack.pdf
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