24 March, 2020

The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council’s (NSWALC’s) Statutory Fund which funds its current and future operations will be safe despite the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the organisation’s CEO and Chairperson said today.

NSWALC CEO James Christian said that while the impact of the virus would undoubtedly continue to be volatile in the short term, long term trends are likely to result in a correction which would maintain the NSWALC Fund’s strong performance.

“Our advice is that markets will recover as governments and central banks respond with stimulus packages and the nature of the virus is better understood,” Mr Christian said.

“Authorities are getting a better understanding of the effects and recovery rates day by day, which is encouraging from both a health and financial perspective. We have seen from what is happening in Wuhan, where we are told there have been no new infections, that there has been some success in controlling the virus – which helps provide an end date for this economic downturn.”

“It should be remembered this is a health issue that is affecting financial markets due to its uncertain and unknown nature. It is different to the Global Financial Crisis which was purely a financial markets problem.”

Chairperson Councillor Anne Dennis said NSWALC would be adhering to its strategic asset allocation structure which has been modelled and scenario tested to survive through events such as the current virus pandemic.

“Our investment committee, which includes independent finance industry experts and Councillors has met formally on several occasions since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and continues to monitor the situation and its impact closely,” Cr Dennis said. 

“It is logical to expect that once the health issue is removed, the financial markets will recover quickly. This recovery should present some new and interesting investment opportunities, which NSWALC will be able to take advantage of, due to its financial strength.”

“This is not a time for panic, but careful, objective actions to best protect the health of the people in our Network and the financial health of the Land Rights movement.” 

The NSWALC Statutory Fund has consistently outperformed similar investment funds over the past decade and the organisation expects this to continue.