The report – Fuelling Harm: How Australian banks are complicit in fossil fuel-related human rights violations – examines the extent to which Australia’s biggest banks meet their human rights obligations in relation to its financing of fossil fuel companies such as Woodside and Santos. It finds that all of the Big Four banks – ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB and Westpac – have failed to implement a range of basic safeguarding policies and practices, with ANZ the worst performing bank.
Katherine Tu, Head of Policy at ActionAid Australia, said:
“These findings should ring big alarm bells for the customers and shareholders of Australia’s biggest banks, which are actively misleading people by making claims about how they are responding to climate change and preventing human rights violations. This report reveals that there are huge gaps in their policies and practices. The banks could be opening themselves up to legal risks on the basis of misleading and deceptive conduct. ActionAid and partners are calling on the banks to urgently update their policies to strengthen human rights protections and reduce their exposure to risk, and that’s something we will be taking to the banks’ AGMs later this year.”
Marjorie Warisaiho from the Centre for Environmental Law & Community Rights in Papua New Guinea, a partner of ActionAid Australia, said:
“As we have seen in Papua New Guinea, fossil fuel projects like PNG LNG and the proposed Papua LNG bring large social and economic change, and women often carry the burden of rising living costs, family pressures, community conflict, and safety concerns, while decisions about land, benefits, and development are made on their behalf. Limited access to free, prior, and adequate information further restricts their ability to participate meaningfully. Australian banks must stop fuelling this harm by ending finance to the companies responsible.”
ActionAid’s report found that by continuing to finance the fossil fuel industry, all of the Big Four banks are complicit in the industry’s human rights harms. Each bank has failed to fully implement the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and their policies allow financing of clients that do not have basic human rights policy frameworks. Despite the fossil fuel industry’s known high-risk profile, and human rights complaints against these companies, none of the four banks were able to demonstrate that they proactively consider complaints of human rights violations in financing decisions.
ANZ bank provided AU$2.8 billion in finance to the fossil fuel industry in 2025, almost double that of NAB and Westpac and triple that of CBA.
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The full report is available here: https://actionaid.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Fuelling-Harm-full-report.pdf
Katherine Tu and Marjorie Warisaiho are available for interviews.
Contact: Stephanie Wulf, Senior Communications Manager, ActionAid Australia
[email protected] / +61 (0)456 952 836
About ActionAid: ActionAid is a global women’s rights organisation, working with women on the frontlines of injustice – including the climate crisis, conflicts, and humanitarian emergencies. Our dedicated local staff work with more than 41 million people living in 71 countries, supporting women to transform their lives and their communities.