The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation (Guardians), manager of the $90 billion New Zealand Superannuation Fund (Super Fund), has confirmed it will not appeal a recent Judicial Review that found two of its policy documents were not formulated in accordance with the relevant statutory requirements.
In a decision published on 16 May 2026, Justice Mount said parts of the Guardians’ Statement of Investment Policies, Standards & Procedures and its Sustainable Investment Framework were “materially less clear and specific than the previous iterations” and “framed in such general terms as to provide no practical benchmark for those applying them in relation to alleged breaches of human rights standards.”
General Manager of Corporate Affairs Cristina Billett said the Guardians accepted that its policies need more specificity and would be amending them accordingly.
“Our mandate requires us to manage the Super Fund in a manner consistent with, among other things, avoiding prejudice to New Zealand’s reputation as a responsible member of the world community, and our investment policies are designed to ensure we achieve that objective,” Ms Billett said.
“We accept Justice Mount’s finding that it is important we not only adhere to and comply with our sustainable investment policies, but that the standards and procedures underlying those policies must be identified more clearly in our policy documents.
With that in mind, we are now working on how we can reformulate those documents to ensure they satisfy that condition.”
Ms Billett said the court decision focused on the way the Guardians’ policy documents described the Guardians’ sustainable investment decision-making processes.
Updates to the policy documents in recent years had not, however, materially changed the Guardians’ actual engagement and exclusion practices.
Further information about the Guardians’ sustainable investment approach is available in our Stewardship Report: https://nzsuperfund.cmail19.com/t/d-l-guthuud-hujkdust-n/
And in the investment section of our website: https://nzsuperfund.cmail19.com/t/d-l-guthuud-hujkdust-p/