Poor governance of corporate political engagement is also increasingly becoming a material risk to investors. This is especially the case when it comes to climate change and sustainability, as Australian regulators increase their scrutiny of ‘greenwashing’. Insufficient governance of political spending and climate lobbying activities can result in gaps between companies’ policies or positions on climate change and the action they take.

Yet, investors and other important stakeholders have limited insight into the political spending and climate lobbying activities of Australian companies. Australian disclosure requirements for political spending are less stringent than in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In this study, ACCR investigates how major public companies in Australia disclose and govern their political expenditures and climate lobbying. Researchers analysed how well 50 leading ASX companies govern their political spending by using the CPA-Zicklin Index, the leading measure of transparency and accountability for corporate political expenditure. Researchers then compared Australian companies' performance against the Index with the performance of leading US companies. ACCR also assessed BHP, Origin, Rio Tinto, Santos and Woodside.

The findings show that top Australian companies have poor governance and disclosure of their political spending, compared to the top 500 listed companies in the United States. The report also finds that the five energy and resources companies assessed do not have strong disclosure and governance of their climate lobbying. Moreover, there is a significant gap between these companies’ committed stances on climate policy and their advocacy efforts.