ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the perceptions of the Australian Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) sector of interest from the point of view of ethical analysis gathered from SRI fund managers. Several features of ethical interest were identified, including definitional and practical concerns over the current state of SRI in Australia, and sharply differing attitudes to so-called ethical investment. The rising public consciousness in Australia of issues traditionally at the heart of SRI has been accompanied by increasing public and legislative interest in the area of social responsibility in markets. Australia's finance industry uses innovative and sophisticated financial products, and is tailored to financially sophisticated investors. Australian SRI funds overall investment approaches to ethical investment are dominated, although not exclusively, by a screening approach to investment. Screening is the use of non-financial criteria to rule companies into or, more commonly, out of the investment universe of an SRI fund.
