“Superannuation is fundamental in helping to set up our workforce for retirement, and it’s important we continue to do what we can to support our public sector workers to help them save for this stage of life,” said Treasurer Rita Saffioti. Photo: Facebook.
As the parliamentary year came to a close for Western Australia, amendments to the state’s superannuation bill mean GESB members will soon be able to keep their account even if they leave the public sector or get a second non-government job.
Under the former legislation, GESB members who left the public sector or had dual-government and non-government employment had to open a super account with another fund.
With the passing of the State Superannuation Amendment Bill 2023 in both houses of WA Parliament, members of the default super fund for most of the WA public sector will have an easier time managing their funds and less fees to pay.
Around 250,000 current and former public sector workers will benefit from the changes to the largest fund based in WA, which manages more than $40 billion and has been around for 85 years.
Treasurer Rita Saffioti said these commonsense changes would ultimately result in more flexibility and choice for public sector workers.
The amendments host related provisions including the introduction of ‘stapling’ arrangements for WA Government employers to be implemented at a later date. While final steps are in progress to implement the changes, such as drafting the regulations, GESB said it will keep its members updated on when they come into effect.
GESB told members if they closed their account and left the WA public sector before the changes came into effect, they could not rejoin GESB unless they returned to work in the public sector as the changes would only apply to existing members.
The super fund claims that if members remain they will benefit from:
- Keeping super in one fund, which will save them from managing multiple accounts
- Low fees and charges
- Competitive long-term investment returns
- Member first service
- Specialised insurance products.
According to the super fund’s latest investment update for the September 2024 quarter:
- All major asset classes generated positive returns over the quarter, largely influenced by central banks lowering their official cash rates
- Global listed property added 13.5 per cent and was the best performing major asset class
- International shares returned 3.6 per cent while Australian shares added 7.8 per cent
- Bond markets performed well with Australian bonds rising 3 per cent and global bonds rising 4.2 per cent
- My GESB Super returned 3.59 per cent and My West State Super returned 4.03 per cent
- And RI Allocated Pension Conservative returned 2.96 per cent.
These modifications to the legislation align GESB with the Federal Government’s Your Future, Your Super changes, which claimed in 2020 would save Australians $17.9 billion over the following 10 years.
According to the Commonwealth Treasury, the changes would benefit the superannuation system in four key ways:
- Your superannuation follows you, preventing the creation of unintended multiple superannuation accounts
- Empowering members, by making it easier for you to choose a well-performing product that meets your needs
- Holding funds to account for underperformance, protecting you from poor outcomes and encouraging funds to lower costs and fees to boost Australians’ retirement incomes
- Increasing transparency and accountability for how superannuation funds use members’ savings.
