media release
15 February 2023
HESTA membership has reached new heights with the Fund recently welcoming its one-millionth member and plans for continued growth well underway as part of the Fund’s three-year strategy.
HESTA CEO Debby Blakey said reaching one million members is an important milestone for the Fund, noting that increased scale helps HESTA continue delivering super with impact, creating positive outcomes for members.
“Our members are at the heart of everything we do, so it’s an enormous privilege to head into 2023 with one million Australians who trust HESTA to look after their hard-earned retirement savings,” Ms Blakey said.
“Being one million strong means our members can collectively have an amazing impact through their super. They know we’re a trusted partner supporting them to face the future with confidence, that we’ll be a gutsy advocate for a fairer, healthier community and we’ll deliver investment excellence with impact, accelerating progress towards a more sustainable world.”
Established in 1987, the now $70 billion industry super fund was created before the introduction of the national Super Guarantee to extend the benefits of superannuation to more women, with an initial focus on predominately female workforces in health and community services.
Ms Blakey said the Fund has for over 35 years built deep relationships across the health and community services sector, contributing to a strong understanding of its members, around 80% of whom are women.
“It’s an incredible privilege to be dedicated to serving those working in health and community services and to be able to invest in and for people who make our world better,” Ms Blakey said.
“Our members are mainly women working part-time or casually in often lower-paid sectors such as aged care or early childhood education. Many miss out on the full benefits of super because they take unpaid time out of the workforce to care for others.
“Core to our purpose is our super with impact approach and the incredible growth we’re seeing across the fund shows this strategy is resonating with more and more Australians.”
This approach saw HESTA in 2021 launch Future Planner, a digital help and education online tool that aimed to break down barriers to affordable financial advice. More than 150,000 HESTA members have used Future Planner since its launch in August 2021.
The Fund has also long advocated for equity measures to make Australia’s super system fairer, including paying super on Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave, introducing a carer’s credit for unpaid parental leave and improving equity in the distribution of super tax concessions. Following years of advocacy from HESTA and others, the $450 monthly wages threshold for payment of super was scrapped in 2022, ending a long-standing super system inequity that disproportionately impacted women.
Ms Blakey said last year’s merger between HESTA and Mercy Super, which resulted in 13,000 Mercy Super members and their assets moving to HESTA, was the start of an exciting era of growth for the Fund.
“It’s fantastic the team was able to deliver a smooth merger in just eight months and we’re continuing to look for other opportunities to build on this strong growth track record,” Ms Blakey said.
“I want to thank the entire HESTA team for their passion and commitment in making a difference to our members’ financial futures, as well as our partners for their valued, ongoing support.”
Ends.