Future Fund

The Future Fund is an independently managed sovereign wealth fund established in 2006 to strengthen the Australian Government's long-term financial position by making provision for unfunded superannuation liabilities for public servants that will become payable during a period when an ageing population is likely to place significant pressure on the Commonwealth's finances.

[3] The legislation[4] establishing the Future Fund describes its main object as being 'to strengthen the Commonwealth's long-term financial position'.

The Investment Mandate[5] for the Future Fund is to target a benchmark return of at least the Consumer Price Index + 4 to 5 per cent per annum over the long term, while taking an acceptable but not excessive level of risk.

The Future Fund is overseen by an independent Board of Guardians selected on the basis of their expertise in investment management and corporate governance.

In March 2007, the opposition Labor Party announced it would withdraw A$2.7 billion from the Future Fund to finance the National Broadband Network, an initiative to install broadband internet infrastructure across Australia, if it won the 2007 election; this proposal prompted government ministers to proclaim that Labor intended to "raid" the Future Fund for their own means.

Rick Waddell, President and Chief Operating Officer of Northern Trust, indicated that Australian companies did not have the expertise to manage the Future Fund.

National secretary of the Finance Sector Union Paul Schroder estimated that around 100 jobs will be lost when the US company starts managing the Fund from Singapore using staff from India.

[35] In November 2024, the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, announced that the Future Fund will be directed to invest in green energy and housing projects where sustainable.

[36] In May 2011, the Future Fund was criticised by The Age newspaper for investing $135.4 million in 15 foreign-owned companies involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons for the United States, Britain, France and India.