2025 Annual Member Meeting transcript

Start of transcript

Brad Zaknich: Good evening, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to GESB's Annual Member Meeting for 2024/2025 financial year. My name is Brad Zaknich and I'll be your host for the evening. For those joining us who are deaf or hard of hearing, there is a closed caption function which can be activated by clicking on the CC button on your screen.

In addition to this, we also have two Auslan interpreters with us today, Lauren Eckhart and Linda de Rozario from Vital Interpreting Personnel. You should be able to see the interpreters in a small window at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. For those of you who are vision impaired, I have short, dark hair and I'm wearing a grey suit and a white shirt.

Before we commence the formalities for the evening, I would like to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of this country. We pay respect to The Traditional Owners and Elders, past and present, of all the lands on which we come together.

Attending this meeting in official capacity this evening we have Esther Conway, our Fund Actuary from Mercer, Aamir Sheikh from the Office of the Auditor-General and Fiona Drummond from EY, who were our external auditors for last year. Also in attendance are our Board members and the Executive Leadership Team.

Tonight's meeting follows a similar format to previous years. First up, you'll hear from three speakers, GESB's Board Chair, Jo Gaines, our Chief Executive Officer, Ben Palmer and our Chief Investments Officer, Paul Taylor. Following on from this, we'll open up the floor for a Q&A opportunity.

Now in regards to questions, we do have some questions that were submitted in advance of this meeting, which we will address, but if you'd like to ask a question while the event is live, please use the ask a question function, which can be found at both the top right-hand and bottom left-hand corners of your screen. Answers to the questions will be published on the website.

Please note that the information provided in tonight's meeting is of a general nature and it does not constitute personal financial advice. In addition to this, if you have a question that relates to your personal situation and your account with GESB, I'd encourage you to contact our member services team directly. The contact details can be found on the GESB website. I'd now like to introduce our first speaker, our Board Chair, Jo Gaines.

Jo Gaines: Thank you, Brad and good evening, everyone. For those of you who are vision impaired, I have shoulder length, dark blonde hair and I'm wearing a black suit.

I would like to respectfully acknowledge that we meet on Whadjuk Boodja and that our members work on the traditional lands across the state. I pay my respects to their cultures and their communities, their Elders past and present.

It is a pleasure to be here with you tonight and I appreciate this opportunity to connect with our members and share our achievements from the past financial year and outline our plans for the future.

For more than 85 years, we've been a default fund for most of the WA public sector and have helped our members achieve a quality retirement by looking after their super, providing insurance they can rely on and delivering an exceptional member experience. It's something we pride ourselves on and as we reflect on the past financial year, it's pleasing to see that it was not only another successful year for the fund, but one that marks a significant milestone in our history.

It was the launch of GESB One Fund in May. This represented the culmination of more than three years' work that has changed the landscape in which we operate, benefiting our members and strengthening the sustainability of our fund. Amendments to the State Superannuation Act mean our members can now choose to keep their superannuation contributions going to GESB if they leave the public sector, have both public sector and private sector employment, or start a job in the private sector. They can now stay with us throughout their career and into retirement.

The changes make it easier for our members to manage their superannuation, reducing the need to have accounts with multiple super funds and helping to minimise any fees they pay. Our members now have more flexibility and choice and we are thrilled to have been able to make these changes, with many members benefiting since its implementation, including the partners and spouses of members.

One Fund was a lengthy and complex initiative and we could not have achieved this outcome without the unwavering commitment of the organisation to achieve the milestone. On behalf of the Board, I extend my thanks to Ben and the team at GESB who helped make this happen. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the State Government, the Department of Treasury and Finance, the Parliamentary Counsel's Office and our service partners at MUFG and AIA Australia, all of whom were integral to the successful implementation of the One Fund initiative.

Our members continue to benefit from strong investment performance, with our readymade investment plans achieving returns that were ahead of most other superannuation funds and our My GESB Super plan was recognised by SuperRatings as a top 10 performing balanced option for the second consecutive year.

GESB again received a Rainmaker ESG Leader rating. This is the third successive year GESB has achieved this rating earned by Australia's best super funds that perform to high ESG principles, while having a track record of strong investment performance.

The Board remains committed to positioning GESB strongly in the superannuation industry and we have identified enhancements to our service model and business operations that will help us ensure GESB continues to achieve competitive outcomes for our members. Our Retirement Income strategy is continuously evolving to support, guide, assist and where appropriate, advise members who are retired or approaching retirement.

We will continue to focus on product enhancements, including investment plan flexibility, fortnightly pension payments and inflation indexation of allocated pension payments. We also recognise that this is not a linear journey, as our members take the opportunity to do part-time work while supported by a GESB income stream. We recognise that members need help and guidance through their superannuation journey, particularly when they start to think about and plan for retirement.

To help members with their retirement planning journey, we are working to further enhance the guidance and education we provide across multiple channels, including the introduction of a digital learning hub. We will be launching a new Retirement Income calculator in December to support members in determining their savings requirements, to meet their desired budget and lifestyle during retirement.

We know that giving members a choice in how they want to manage their retirement with us is important. We have a full roadmap of online features that are planned to be made available progressively in the first six months of next year. Some of these include a rebalancing capability for drawdown online, the ability to vary pension payment amounts and the ability to make partial and full withdrawals.

We will also be working with the State Government to develop a strategy for the provision of financial advice by GESB over the coming year. In addition, we will support our members who already have a financial advisor. A significant number of our members have external financial advisors they engage with to provide advice on retirement and superannuation and we are developing an advisor engagement and servicing model to support these advisors in providing appropriate advice to our members and optimise their retirement outcomes.

Finally, I would like to reassure our members that cybersecurity remains a priority. We are continuously taking measures to protect our online systems and as part of this, we recently made important security changes to the way members log into Member Online. You can now choose to upgrade your security options and use multi-factor authentication with an authenticator app or passkey to verify your identity when logging in. From next year, these changes will be mandatory. However, we are encouraging all our members to make this important security upgrade as soon as possible.

I would like to thank the GESB Board and committee members, the Executive Leadership Team and the GESB staff for their dedication and hard work. It has been a history making year for the fund and it could not have been achieved without their collective contribution. I also extend my thanks to you, our members, for your continued support of GESB and I reaffirm the Board's commitment to strong governance and a robust stewardship of our members' funds. Thank you.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Jo. Our second speaker for the evening is Ben Palmer, our Chief Executive Officer.

Ben Palmer: Thank you, Brad. Good evening and thank you all for joining our 2025 Annual Members Meeting. For those of you who are vision impaired, I have short, grey hair, an increasingly grey beard and I'm wearing a dark blue suit and a white shirt.

We are here to provide GESB's members, our current and former WA public sector colleagues, with an extremely high quality superannuation fund they can trust to deliver member outcomes that are competitive with the very best funds in the country. It's a privilege to be here with you tonight to report on another strong year for the fund.

We continue to focus on our core responsibilities to all our members, which involves ensuring they are part of a high quality, sustainable, value for money super fund. Each year we assess our performance to ensure we continue to promote the best financial interests of our members.

Known as the member outcomes assessment, we review the performance of our default My GESB Super plan across several areas, including investment performance, fees and costs, insurance and the benefits of being a GESB member. It's very pleasing to report that we have met or exceeded 38 out of our 43 targeted member outcomes for the financial year ended 30 June 2025.

We met our primary and secondary investment objectives and we passed the equivalent of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, or APRA, performance test. As an exempt public sector fund, GESB is not regulated by APRA and is therefore not included in the APRA performance test. However, the My GESB Super investment plan performance is independently assessed against the APRA equivalent benchmark each year and it was determined that it would have passed the performance test if it were regulated by APRA.

Our performance ranks strongly against our peers, with My GESB Super ranking between number 2 and number 4 against our peers over all periods over the past one to five years. Our low fees remain in the lowest quartile of our peer funds, which means more of our members' money stays invested in their future.

Our member satisfaction remains consistently high, with a satisfaction rate of 93%, with complaints per total membership at 0.128%, which is very low against the industry. For example, the SuperRatings all fund median complaint rate is 0.56%. Similarly, our employer satisfaction rate is also consistently higher, this year coming in at 99%.

Our operating expenses, relative to the size of our membership base and our assets under management, are in the lowest quartile and are well below industry medians and we continue to maintain positive fund flows. This size enables us to benefit from reduced investment costs. Our management expense ratio, which is the cost to manage our investments, is among the lowest of all MySuper products.

We provide default insurance cover for most of our members when they first join GESB. This is important to help providing financial support in the event of serious illness, death or disability. Members can opt out or vary the amount of insurance at any time if it doesn't suit their needs. Our aim is to provide insurance that members can rely on when they need it most. Independent analysis of our default insurance offering relative to our member demographics confirms that the default insurance cover we provide for death, total and permanent disability and salary continuance insurance is appropriate for our membership.

We offer default insurance to members who are employed in all occupations in the WA public service, including hazardous occupations, which is something that is not offered by all super funds. We also provide a range of member information and support services, including insurance claims consultants, member services call centre consultants, online live chat services, a secure member online portal, one-on-one retirement option service appointments and a range of seminars and webinars to support our members in making informed decisions regarding their super, retirement and insurance.

Putting our members first is fundamental to who we are and we aim to make the superannuation experience as easy as possible. This is why we continuously improve and streamline processes and communications to help our members navigate the superannuation system and make informed decisions about their future.

Our commitment to supporting our members was again demonstrated this year with the introduction of our in-person reception support service, which provides face-to-face support for members in relation to deceased estates, compassionate grounds and financial hardship benefit access and insurance claims. Members often need support during times of emotional and financial stress and our reception support service means they can receive in-person help with filling out forms, submitting information and clarifying any outstanding documentation.

For death benefit claims, our consultant can liaise with relevant administrators to make the process easier for our members. This has been particularly helpful for members, their representatives and beneficiaries where there is complexity with dependents or family structures. The reception support service has helped reduce some of the stresses members experience during these difficult times and the time taken to process benefits and pay insurance benefits.

We know that digital inclusion is important for all members across all stages of their life and accessibility is an important consideration when we develop online content and initiatives, as it makes it easier for everyone, our members, employers and the public, to find and easily use our website and online tools and services.

To ensure we meet high accessibility standards, we conduct regular reviews and in 2024, our member online portal and the webinar registration process were audited. As a result of the improvements made, these now have accessibility scores of 90% or more. To help everyone, including people with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments, access and use of our online content, we have accessibility features in place, including keyboard navigation for all our website elements and content, captions on our recorded webinars, accessible PDF documents and alternative text for our images to work with screen reading technology.

Our work in the accessibility space has been widely recognised and we were recently nominated for the Government Website of the Year at the Australian Access Awards. These awards recognise and honour outstanding achievements in digital accessibility. This is the second time GESB has been recognised at the Access Awards, following the 2021 recognition of Jane McInnes, our Digital Communications Specialist, as Accessibility Person of the Year for her work at GESB. Jane has also been inducted into the Centre for Accessibility Hall of Fame for her work in the accessibility field and we're incredibly proud to have Jane as part of our team.

As Jo discussed, One Fund has been an important milestone for GESB and it has been incredible to see how our members have responded since we went live with One Fund on 12 May. As at 31 October this year, there have been $10.8 million in non-government contributions. We've welcomed 3,659 new members, 815 of these have reactivated after more than 24 months of being inactive. Our members have rolled over more than $52 million into GESB and we now have more than 3,400 non-government employers paying contributions into the fund.

Our purpose, as always, is to help our members achieve a quality retirement and the advances and accomplishments we have made over the past year will be compounded by the work we continue to do on your behalf. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our Board for their support, strategic direction and oversight. I would also like to thank our staff who come to work each day with a commitment to helping our members. Finally, thank you to you, our members. It's a privilege to look after the retirement savings of our current and former public sector colleagues. I look forward to answering your questions at the end of the presentations. Thank you.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Ben. It's now time for our last speaker for tonight, who is Paul Taylor, our Chief Investments Officer.

Paul Taylor: Thank you, Brad. For those of you who are vision impaired, I've almost no hair and a beard and I'm wearing a grey suit with a white shirt. Tonight I'm going to cover four key areas. The first is the performance of investment markets over the past one, three and five years. Secondly, I'll cover what this means for your performance over those time periods. Then I'll provide a comparison of our fees to other superannuation funds and finally, an update on our climate change commitments.

The very short summary is that GESB continues to deliver competitive investment returns, with low fees and a strong emphasis on managing risks. Let's start by looking at how investment markets performed over periods to 30 June 2025. Generally, it's been a positive period for investment market returns, with all major asset classes generating positive returns over one and five years to 30 June.

Over the year, international shares returned 16%, while Australian shares added almost 14%. These double-digit returns mastered a lot of volatility during the year, particularly in early April when share markets fell following tariff announcements in the US. Share markets rebounded strongly, however, when the US softened its stance on tariffs through a series of pauses, negotiations and exemptions.

Bond markets also achieved positive returns over the year, with inflation gradually reducing to within or close to central bank targets, which shifted the focus from increasing interest rates to interest rate reductions. On a five-year basis, most asset classes performed reasonably well, particularly share markets, which have risen by around 10 to 15% per annum.

These stronger investment market returns had a positive impact on the performance of our investment choice options and performance continues to fare well against other superannuation funds. The graphs show the performance of GESB Super ready-made plans against the average returns of other superannuation funds, as provided by independent superannuation research provider, SuperRatings.

The graphs show that across GESB Super ready-made plans, performance has typically been in line with or above median over one, three and five years. As an example, my GESB Super returned 10.4% after tax and fees over the year, bringing the three-year return to 10% per annum and the five-year return to 8.4% per annum. These returns were above the majority of other superannuation funds. Achieving such strong returns over the year was pleasing, given the challenging investment environment and we are proud to deliver these returns to you.

We have also performed well against market indices. The benchmarks in these graphs assume that assets are invested in line with strategic asset allocations and the returns from each asset class match the relevant index return. The graphs show performance across these West State Super, GESB Super and Retirement Income plans over the past one, three and five years. For example, my West State Super returned 10.4% for the year, which brings the three-year return to 9.6% per annum and the five-year return to 7.9% per annum.

These returns were well above the return that would have been achieved if you had invested in an index tracking fund in line with the stated strategic asset allocation. We've consistently achieved returns close to or above benchmarks over these time periods after fees, which is what we strive to deliver to our members.

Now turning attention to what this means for long-term performance, this graph summarises the performance of some of our readymade plans across West State Super, GESB Super and Retirement Income against their CPI plus return objectives. The plans shown are measured over rolling seven-year time periods, reflecting the minimum recommended time horizon for each plan's risk profile.

The relatively flat pink line shows the primary return objective, which is CPI plus 3% per annum for those plans. The other coloured lines on the chart show the actual rates of return achieved by the investment plans over time. The graph shows that while performance can fluctuate from year to year, our plans have achieved returns that meet their objectives with a high degree of consistency over the long term.

It's important to remember that superannuation is a long-term investment and while we won't achieve the targeted returns every year, our focus remains on achieving objectives over the long term so you, our members, can enjoy a quality retirement.

Another important factor that impacts investment returns is fees. We ensure our fees offer value for money and are competitive with other superannuation funds and this remains a priority. Our investment fees continue to be at the lower end of superannuation funds, with the chart showing fee levels based on a $50,000 account balance. Our intention is not to be the cheapest fund, as this may limit our ability to invest in in a diversified range of high quality investments and add value over time. However, we've consistently been one of the lower cost providers of superannuation and our strategy is for this to continue.

Finally, I'd like to provide an update on how we are managing climate change risks and our progress towards our climate change commitments. A general approach to considering climate change impacts on our investment portfolios is to ensure we make investment decisions based on what is in the best financial interest of our members. This approach supports our purpose to help members achieve a quality retirement.

Within this context, we believe environmental, social and governance factors, including climate change, present both investment risks and opportunities and it is appropriate to consider such factors to achieve the best financial outcomes for our members. As part of this, the Board has committed to transitioning our investment portfolio to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and we have interim targets to check our progress.

With that in mind, our focus to date has been on listed investments comprising Australian shares, international shares, listed property and listed infrastructure. These asset classes represent over half of our assets and are therefore significant to our commitments.

Specifically, the Board has an interim target for our listed portfolio to reduce carbon intensity from 45% by 2030 from a 2020 baseline. This is measured using scope 1 and 2 emissions. We're tracking well against this target. The carbon intensity of our listed share portfolio, including listed property and listed infrastructure, has reduced by 50% from 2020 to 2025, which is already in excess of our 2030 aim.

We also have an interim target for our unlisted property portfolio to have net zero carbon emissions by 2040. This target is also based on scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. Currently, five out of eight of our unlisted property portfolios, covering two-thirds of the unlisted property portfolio, are reported to be at net zero carbon emissions, well in advance of the 2040 target.

This has been achieved through the adoption of energy efficient initiatives for these property assets, including onsite solar, LED lighting and the purchase of renewable energy. Given the strong performance results outlined earlier, these carbon emission results support our approach of achieving return in the best financial interest of our members and a gradual, prudent transition to carbon neutrality.

In addition to the above targets, the Board has recently agreed to a phased reduction in thermal coal exposure. In particular, the Board has set a target to exit share investments that derive 15% or more of revenue from thermal coal production by 2030 across all developed markets. This will be implemented gradually over the coming years. If you would like to learn more about our ESG approach, I encourage you to look at the responsible investing page of our website.

Where to from here? Since 30 June, share market performance has generally been strong. As of today, returns from readymade plans have continued to be positive and competitive against other superannuation funds. Specifically, over the five years to 31 October 2025, the performance, the GESB Super options of Growth, My GESB Super, Balanced and Conservative, are all in the first quartile of superannuation fund returns. That is, in the top 25% of superannuation funds, based on the superannuation surveys mentioned earlier.

In previous years, we've held a relatively neutral view on investment market performance, noting that the moderating of inflation and strength in corporate earnings were quite supportive of share market returns, while geopolitical risks and the impact of higher interest rates would likely be detrimental. That view has worked well over the past five years.

We have now moved to a more cautious view on the medium-term outlook for share market performance. While our focus is on the long term, elevated valuation levels relative to the geopolitical and economic risks that are present means our expectations for share market performance in the medium term is lower than it has been in the past. This means that for readymade options we are holding exposures to shares that are slightly below long-term strategic weights and slightly higher exposures to cash.

I would highlight that positions are modest at this stage and we maintain our focus on our long-term investment objectives. These positions can change as market circumstances evolve, which can happen quite quickly. I hope you enjoyed this update and I look forward to addressing your questions shortly. Thank you.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Paul. Okay, it's time for the question and answer session to come up in a few moments' time. If you're watching live and would like to ask a question, please feel free to submit a question using the ask a question function, there should be a button on your screen.

We'll answer as many as we can, but as I did mention earlier, we do have some pre-prepared questions that were submitted earlier in the day, so we'll address those ones first.

Let's get through the first one, this is a cybersecurity question. I think we're going to go to Ben with this one. With the recent increase in cyber crime, what is GESB doing to make sure our accounts are protected online? Ben, I think that's for you.

Ben Palmer: Thank you, Brad and thank you for the question. Look, we're certainly distinctly aware that cybersecurity is arguably the most important issue in financial services and in superannuation at present. Clearly there was a targeted attack on the superannuation industry earlier this year, which thankfully GESB was not subject to, but it's certainly a target for bad actors in the system.

The first part of my response to this question is very much that cybersecurity is an absolute priority for GESB, for the Board strategically and for the fund. In terms of the environments we use and we operate, clearly we have leading network protection protocols, data protection protocols. We use leading providers in superannuation fund administration.

We have very advanced and progressive threat detection systems and networks that oversee activity that may be coming from bad actors in terms of activity targeting our systems and that's monitored 24/7, 365. We employ authentication controls and regularly audit our cybersecurity protocols and control environment.

In terms of the member environment, we have upgraded our security protocols this year. We did always - sorry, not always, we have for a long time had multi-factor authentication in our member login part of our website. We have enhanced and upgraded our multi-factor authentication protocols this year. Multi-factor authentication is effectively a two-step process to confirm that the person that is purporting to log in or transact on Member Online is indeed the person, the correct member that they purport to be.

A number of enhancements we've made this year, we've introduced the option to use authenticator apps and passkeys, so they're much more secure than traditional SMS-type channels for login codes, et cetera. We're really encouraging our members to make use of the passkey and/or authenticator app options. At the moment, that is optional for members who are registered with Member Online. It's worth noting that we do - we have a continued runway of further enhancements and we will be making that mandatory for members in the coming - or later this financial year.

The other area I think is appropriate to discuss here is to really emphasise how important it is that our members and us as individuals take every possible step to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, many of the successful attacks do originate because of some relatively simple controls. Things like using simple passwords for logging in or using the same password in many different environments.

Many of the industry cyber events that have happened have been credential stuffing. If there is a data breach from anyone in the system, if those customers are customers of different entities and they use the same passwords, clearly bad actors can use the password breached in one environment in other environments.

Similarly, if things like addresses, dates of birth, et cetera, are used as passwords, they're relatively easy for bad actors to guess. That's one thing that's really critically important and continues to be a dominant source of weakness in the system. I certainly encourage all our members to use strong passwords, to change them regularly.

Increasingly, passwords are going to become a thing of the past. I've referenced authenticator apps and the use of passkeys. I'd strongly advocate where people are using passwords to use a password manager. Those applications mean that you don't have to remember all your passwords and it can help you generate extremely complex and secure passwords.

Clearly, it's important to ensure that you have safe controls around who can access email, telephones, et cetera. The final piece of advice there is to really stay aware of the scams that are being perpetrated and as I said, really take every step available to protect yourself as much as you can. But from the GESB side, as I said, we've increased our multi-factor authentication standards and we're going to continue to increase and require those of members logging in in the next coming period.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Ben. Another question's come in, this one is of an investments background, so I'll read this one out. Index funds typically outperform active management in the long term because their low fees and minimal trading costs let investors keep more of the market's return, while active managers usually struggle to beat the market consistently after costs.

Additionally, the broad diversification of index funds reduces the risk of poor stockpiling of mis-timed decisions that often drag down active performance. As such, why does GESB not offer index funds like some of its competitors? The difference in fees alone is huge. Paul, can you take this one for us?

Paul Taylor: Thanks Brad and thanks for the question. I'll probably add a few responses to that. Certainly acknowledge that there's many active managers and even as a whole, can struggle to beat passive benchmarks. The approach that we take is using a multi-manager approach to have different styles that will invest when they invest. Sometimes they might perform well, sometimes not as well, but overall, what I showed in the earlier presentation is that we've been able to consistently beat those indices, because our process is designed to achieve returns that are above those after fees.

Even though, in general, I think there's a lot of merit in terms of what you say, we've got a really consistent track record of being able to consistently beat those indices. If we can't, then we can certainly transition the portfolio to index tracking strategies. We do actually have some index mandates within our portfolio, acknowledging that point.

The point you made on fees, certainly if you're investing through active management it can entail quite high fees. For us as GESB, we've got around $45 billion in assets and we've got a significant scale to be able to negotiate fees to a very competitive level. What you might be able to get directly investing, certainly we can negotiate very low fees and that's one of the reasons, as I said, we want as much of the money in our members' pockets as possible, it's not fees that go to ourselves, we outsource the management to external professional investment managers, so the more that goes in the members' pocket the better.

As I said, the difference between a passive fee and the fees that we pay isn't as great as what it ordinarily would be going directly. Yes, so certainly hear what you're saying in terms of index tracking strategies, but as I said, it's really our track record across the board, particularly in those asset classes that can be indexed. We've certainly shown an ability to add more value for our members.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Paul. Next question is about retirement and financial advice. The question is, when do you hope the financial advice services be available for members ready for retirement and information regarding fees, et cetera? Jo, did you want to perhaps take this one?

Jo Gaines: Yes, thank you, Paul. Look, thanks for the question, it's a really important question and it's one that the Board has been considering deeply over the last number of years. We currently do have a number of services to support our members, including our Retirement Options Service, ROS and ROS appointments are very popular with members and are available at our service centre.

In addition to that, we do have calculators online and we are going through a process of updating and modifying those calculators with the next iteration of that to be launched in December, so we hope these existing products continue to help members.

But this is only the start of the journey we're on with this financial services. We intend to look at this more deeply and look at the options we can provide and the opportunities we can provide to support members going forward.

Some of that will be dependent on the Federal Government legislation that is looking to expand the ability of financial advice and general financial advice, but even without that legislation we are confident that there is more we can do for our members. It's certainly a task that the Board and the Executive Team are focused on and we hope to be doing a lot more for people in the next 12 to 18 months.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Jo. The next question, when will GESB improve online functionality to allow eligible members to withdraw ad hoc amounts from their fund online within a couple of days? Ben, did you want to take this one?

Ben Palmer: Thanks, Brad, yes and thank you for the question. We've spoken earlier about our retirement income strategy and that strategy supports what you may be aware of in the Commonwealth area, referring to the Retirement Income Covenant. Part of that covenant is to provide flexibility in access to retirement savings once members are eligible to take their benefits.

I think Jo alluded earlier to our suite of - our roadmap for our online functionality development. Being able to instruct and draw down ad hoc amounts from the post-retirement phase, so in the Retirement Income Allocated Pension scheme, is on our runway to be implemented over around the next eight months. It's certainly one of the enhancements that we are looking to implement in the online login and it's certainly one of our priority areas which we hope to have implemented some time in the next eight months.

In terms of the timing to process, again through that mechanism, in that scheme we should be able to support a quite prompt payment of moneys as well, so we'll have more information on our website as those - as that functionality becomes available.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Ben. Just going to work through a few more questions, just getting them to come up, won't be a second. We'll take the one we've got here at the moment, we're just putting them in order. It's an investments question, so here we go, this will be for you again, Paul.

There's a view out there that we are heading for another big financial crisis and one reason put forward is the uncertainty around this thing called the AI bubble, which may be artificially propping up the economy and masking some of the impacts of Donald Trump's tariffs. What measures is GESB taking to safeguard our investments if this bubble were to burst, considering that many of the companies GESB have invested in have an AI component?

Paul Taylor: Thanks, Brad and thanks for submitting this in advance as well of the meeting. I'll just make some general overarching comments before I specifically address that question. Whenever you're invested certainly in the readymade plans, it does involve risks and markets will go up and down. I want to make sure that it's clear that there'll be booms and busts and you can't always avoid them. Just an example, if you're in the Retirement Income Balanced fund, there could be negative returns up to four years in 20.

But in having said that and I set it out earlier in the presentation, that even taking into account these ups and downs, that those plans have consistently met those CPI plus objectives over the long term, so it is certainly a long term investment. Just with that context, just to specifically address some of the questions you had around what we are specifically doing, the first thing is that we do run really well diversified portfolios. We're not just relying on shares, or property, or bonds or cash just to deliver those returns for those readymade plans, or we're not relying on a handful of stocks or a handful of industries or sectors. It's very well diversified.

Secondly, what I've noted is we do have a cautious view on share markets and some of is picked up in your question there, so we do have a slightly lower exposure to shares than our long-term strategic target. If taking all that into account still doesn't appease the risk tolerances, that we do have a range of different options to select from, that if you do have either a timeframe or a risk tolerance that can't accept that level of negative returns from time to time, then we have that range from essentially cash or conservative plans all the way up to more growth plans.

On AI in particular, that is expected to be a real driver of growth in efficiencies over the coming years. It is certainly an area that we do want to have some exposure to because, as I said, we see a lot of positives that do come out of it. The follow-up question that you had around that is how much does the RI Allocated Pension Balanced plan have to AI, or US tech companies with that AI link to it?

Just to take it back a step, about 20% of our international share portfolio is exposed to US tech stocks. If you think of the likes of Amazon, Meta, those sorts of companies, given the Balanced plan only has a 22.5% exposure to that, then the actual exposure within the RI Balanced plan is around about 4.5%, that's of shares.

If you then expand that to all sorts of exposure, whether it be bonds or through other asset classes, that increases to 6.5%. Even with that, if you've got a Balanced plan, that exposure to that US tech stock is, there is that exposure there, but we don't have all the eggs in that one basket. It is a very well diversified plan in relation to those exposures.

Brad Zaknich: Cool, thanks, Paul. Okay, another question that was submitted earlier. I opened a spouse account for my wife a few years ago. She doesn't work in the public sector, but can she get her employer to pay her super into her GESB account? Jo, would you like to take this one?

Jo Gaines: Yes, thanks. Thanks for the question and as I outlined earlier, the One Fund changes that we made this year through the changes to legislation mean that we can now accept contributions by private sector employers into GESB funds for members. That's irrespective of whether the member is someone who worked in the public sector or is a spouse of someone who worked in the public sector. As you've rightly pointed out, the ability to set up spouse accounts has existed for a long period of time and this is just a new development as part of GESB One Fund. Your wife can now happily put her employer contributions into her GESB Fund.

Brad Zaknich: Cool, thank you, Jo. The next question is more of a technical nature about West State Super. Can personal before-tax contributions now be deductible for members as West State Super Fund is untaxed? Ben, did you want to take this one?

Ben Palmer: Thank you for the question. Under Commonwealth taxation rules, personal contributions to an untaxed fund are not eligible for a tax deduction, so I think that probably addresses your question before-tax contributions.

Brad Zaknich: I could probably add something to that. People often ask this question, people who are members of a tax super fund can claim tax deductions against their personal contributions, but West State quite simply just doesn't allow that to happen. We do get question in our seminars as well.

Another question, direct - I'm trying to think of the context of this, direct investments into ETFs. That is more of a very simple question. Paul, I'll let you take this one.

Paul Taylor: Yes, I'm not exactly sure of the context, direct investment to ETFs, maybe it's whether we do it or whether we can offer it, I'll probably address both of those. If the question is around do we or will we allow our members to invest directly into ETFs as part of the GESB platform, I'd say it's not part of the current strategic runway of plans to allow that offering directly to our members.

If the question is around as part of the management of our portfolio, do we or could we or should we invest through ETFs, probably a couple of things there. We do have some index tracking investments. I mentioned before about the scale that we have, we can generally access index tracking investments through lower cost means than that. The bulk of when we do invest on an index tracking basis is more directly because of that, those cost efficiencies. Do we have some ETFs? Yes, there are some exposures that we do maintain through ETFs, but it'd be a small part of the portfolio. Hopefully those couple of points cover off the question that you had.

Brad Zaknich: Okay, another of the questions that was submitted earlier. I have a GESB account, but I also have an account with another fund, as I've been in the private sector for many years. I'm considering rolling my funds into my GESB account, but I have all my insurances set up with my current account. Will I have to go through the whole process of applying for insurance with GESB if I close my other account? Ben, did you want to?

Ben Palmer: Yes, thank you, Brad. Thanks for the question. This relates to transfer of insurance in from another fund. You can apply with GESB to have your insurance transferred into GESB and you can apply in relation to death, total and permanent disablement and salary continuance insurance or income protection insurance. There is an insurance transfer application form on our website that you can use to make that application.

Clearly, each circumstance will be assessed, so I would strongly encourage you to seek some advice in the first instance, but obviously don't close or cease any other insurance that you have until you're absolutely clear on the outcome of that application. But we do provide the facility to apply to have insurance transferred into your GESB account. As I said, there's a form on the website to make that application.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Ben. Just waiting on the next question to come through. We do actually have quite a few in the queue, just waiting on it to get sent up. Here we go. This is also an investments question. What initiatives does GESB have in place to allow for present and future climate change risk? Paul, did you want to look after this one?

Paul Taylor: Yeah, sure, thanks. Thanks for that and yes, a really important question and something that we spend a lot of time on, ensuring that we understand and manage these risks appropriately. We do assess and manage climate change risks in a number of ways and we really embed it throughout our investment process.

The first stage is through when we're setting our strategic asset allocations and our investment strategy. We do a lot of work in terms of modelling and understanding various climate change scenarios that could occur over the very, very long term and what that could mean to investment returns. That feeds into our strategic review process.

We also look at, when we're considering our portfolio construction and our investment manager selection, the management of climate change, which is a really important factor that we do consider when we are assessing the investment managers that we do use to manage the assets of the fund, how they are actually managing the portfolio and how they are dealing with climate change risks.

Also in relation to our consultants, our asset consultant, our sort of main investment consultant that we do use, we do require them to consider the impacts of climate change on our investments. How that manifests itself, I mentioned before about the carbon intensity of our listed investment portfolio, it's reduced by 50% over the past five years or so. A lot of that's to do with the mandates that we have managed, where we do instruct our managers to ensure that the carbon emissions from our portfolio are lower than benchmarks, which then helps us with that management of those risks in the immediate term.

We've also got a number of investments that target on a more forward-looking basis that form part of the solution as well. I'm thinking in the infrastructure sector, for example, where we have some investments there that will benefit from the energy transition as a result of climate change. It's a really important area that we look at. We resource it really well because we think it's really important for long-term investment returns.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Paul. The next question is a retirement-based question. We've got a member who's looking to retire in 2027. Good luck. With allocated pensions, can you change plans as often as you like? Is there a fee each time you switch from say balanced to growth back to cash, et cetera? Ben, did you want to take this one?

Ben Palmer: Sure, thank you, Frank, for the question. My answer is specifically in relation to the GESB Retirement Income Allocated Pension scheme. Yes, you can change between plans, switching as we call it. We do not charge a fee for switching and we actually operate on a single unit price basis, so there's not even a buy, sell or bid ask spread on the buy and sell unit prices.

I would encourage all our members to understand and if appropriate, get advice on the risk profile that they have in their investment option and probably just make an observation that switching, trying to - as Paul referenced earlier, trying to time your exposures in and out of different strategies and markets is extremely difficult to do on a reliable and successful basis. Certainly encourage taking a longer-term perspective on how your investments are structured. But to answer your question, yes, you can switch between options. There's no charge to do that and you can do it really as often as you like.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks for that. The next question's also going to be for Paul, about investing again. What is GESB's position on investing in WA green government bonds?

Paul Taylor: Sure, thanks for that. Our position on investing in anything is to invest in what's the best financial interest of members. Green bonds is part of our investment portfolio that our investment managers do invest in, so approximately 7% of our bond portfolio is invested in green bonds. That's not just WA, but that's green bonds more broadly, that covers a much broader spectrum. It's something we certainly do invest in, provided it is in the best interest, financial best interest of our members and that's following due diligence of the appointed investment managers in that sector.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Paul. Just waiting on a few more questions to get loaded up. They're sitting there waiting to come through, just waiting for it to come up for us. One of the questions that we've been asked is - actually it's popped up, here we go. This is an investments question. GESB, what is your exposure to bitcoin and stablecoins? Paul, another one for you.

Paul Taylor: Sure, thanks, Brad and thanks for the question. We don't have - as GESB, don't have any direct exposure to bitcoin or stablecoins. Bitcoin's an area where certainly it's quite a volatile asset class and it's probably on the more speculative end.

The way we invest and we invest to achieve our objectives, which are generally in the order of inflation plus - depending on the sector, but inflation plus 2% to 4%. We've been able to manage that through a range of - diversified range of other asset classes. Currently, as I said, we don't have any direct bitcoin exposure.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Paul. What looks like to be the last question, this one I think is for Ben. Ben, when will GESB be introducing an app?

Ben Palmer: Thanks, Brad, thanks for the question. Well what I can tell you is we're committed this financial year, so before 30 June 2026, to undertake feasibility assessment of a member app. I think it's certainly an area that we acknowledge other funds have and GESB doesn't currently have a member app. As with everything we do, we want to be very diligent in spending members' funds on building out those sorts of services and technologies.

However, we do recognise it's something that many of our members would like to have. As I said, we're undertaking feasibility assessment this year. It will require making sure that all the technology and infrastructure we have around that supports the interaction with an app. But I think it's fair to say we would like to implement an app in the coming year or two. Don't hold me to that, that's all, but we are doing a feasibility assessment this year.

Brad Zaknich: Thanks, Ben. All right, everyone, that's the meeting actually coming to an end. Questions have been answered. Thank you very much for attending. A recording of this event will be posted on our website within the next month, as will the answers to any questions that we were not able to answer tonight. Thank you for attending and good evening.

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