The Wire

The Future Fund is facing further scrutiny over its plans to control 30% of Telstra and the Future Fund chairman David Murray will have to juggle competing obligations, once the government moves any unsold Telstra shares into the fund. The Future Fund is effectively an arm of government, so it will have to work hard to appear independent and avoid looking like an instrument of government control over Telstra. But despite comments by Mr Murray that he does not want to act like controlling shareholder, observers have noted that the fund cannot absolve itself of all responsibility. This is because the Future Fund itself has very important obligations to safe guard the entitlements of thousands of public servants, whose super funds will depend on the Future Fund. And according to Corporate Governance Expert, Professor Stephen Bartos, despite claims by the Federal Government to the contrary, it has not absolved itself of its current conflict of interest by agreeing to park any unsold Telstra shares in the Future Fund.