HESTA reaches one million members

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

16 February 2023

Australian industry superannuation fund, HESTA, has recorded the milestone of one million members as it looks to continue its growth as part of its three-year strategy.

The fund has also accumulated over $70 billion in assets since it was established in 1987, initially to provide superannuation benefits for more women in the time before the national Super Guarantee (SG) was introduced.

“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,” HESTA CEO, Debby 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.”

With a predominant focus on female workforces in health and community services, HESTA’s member base is now made up of 80 per cent of women. This comes as the fund has been a vocal advocate for better equity measures within Australia’s superannuation system, 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.

“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,” 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.”