2024 Annual Member Meeting questions and answers

What are GESB’s investment managers specifically asking of Woodside and Santos in their engagement with these two companies? Why did GESB think that simply voting against the CTAP this year was adequate? Santos has recently been taken to the Federal Court for misleading and deceptive conduct (greenwashing). What's it going to take for GESB to realise that companies like these are doing everything they can to avoid aligning with global climate goals?

We believe environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, including climate change, can impact the long-term, risk adjusted returns for our members.  It is important to understand material ESG risks and opportunities and manage these as part of the investment process. Our ESG and Responsible Investment Policy details our approach.

We continue to use stewardship as part of our approach, with our investment managers best placed to engage with investee companies and undertaking proxy voting on our behalf. Engagement offers our investment managers a way to discuss a variety of ESG issues that affect a company, including corporate governance and climate change.

As mentioned at our Annual Member Meeting, our appointed investment managers have engaged extensively with Woodside and Santos. This includes one-on-one meetings with the Board and senior executives, both throughout the year and in the lead up to each company’s Annual General Meeting. It also includes collective engagements undertaken via Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative where some of our investment managers are participants.

Within these engagements, our investment managers take the opportunity to further understand each company’s approach to climate risk and its plans to align its business model to a net zero pathway.  Some of the questions asked of these companies relate to capital allocation, reporting and progress against any climate change targets and details around any investment in technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). Transparency and disclosure around these areas is also discussed.

Proxy voting is an outcome of each investment manager’s engagement with Santos and Woodside on each issue. When voting on climate-related disclosures, such as the Woodside Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) mentioned, our investment managers consider the progress made to date on climate disclosures and expectations around future changes, as well as ensuring the appropriate governance and management of the companies.

We engage regularly with our investment managers on their stewardship activities to ensure consistency with our ESG and Responsible Investment Policy and with the aim of achieving outcomes that are in the best financial interest of members.

We continue to believe our investment managers are best placed to carry out these stewardship activities and as such, we will not be nominating a director for these investee companies.

Does GESB believe that Woodside & Santos boards have the necessary skills for the urgent energy transition? If not, will you consider putting forward your own nominees to achieve net zero?

My West State Super Balance on the ATO Website is lower than the live GESB platform. Do you know if that is purely based on the 15% being deducted or if there a time lag in updates or a combination of both?

Super funds only have to report member account balances to the ATO once a year, no later than 31 October. Because of this, it's not unusual for the amount in your ATO online account to be different to the balance in your Member Online account.