Governance and disclosure

Consistent with superannuation industry practice, we are disclosing specific details relating to our governance, Board of Directors and senior officers, products and performance.

Our governing rules

The governing rules relating to GESB are set out in the following:

Product Information Booklets

Our Product Information Booklets summarise the key features and membership information for each of our products.

Annual Reports

Our Annual Reports are a vital tool for ensuring financial, performance and operational accountability to the WA State Government and to our members.

Statement of Corporate Intent

Our Statement of Corporate Intent (SCI) outlines our strategic plan for the next 12 months.

The plan provides information on the environment we operate in, our corporate objectives, and the initiatives we'll undertake in the following 12 months to achieve these objectives. It also describes our key performance targets and financial forecasts for the upcoming financial year.

Our strategy - 2025/26

In 2025/26, we remain committed to helping our members achieve a quality retirement. We do this by supporting them to make informed decisions about their future, and delivering competitive long-term investment returns, low fees, insurance our members can rely on, and high-quality value for money products and services.

Learn more about our strategy in the 2025/26 SCI. You can also access our SCI for the last four years:

Significant Event Notices

We notify members in writing of any significant events affecting their membership. Read a summary of Significant Event Notices we have issued to our members.

Significant Event Notifications
Notice date Effective date Members affected Summary of changes

June 2026

11 June 2026

GESB Super, West State Super,  Transition to Retirement Pension and Retirement Income Allocated Pension members

To help you grow your super, we’ve implemented a number of changes to your investment options. These went into effect on 11 June 2026.

For more details, read our Changes to your investment options notification.

June 2026

11 June 2026

RI Term Allocated Pension members

Our regulations have been updated to allow RI Term Allocated Pension members to fully withdraw their account balance and close their account. Previously, lump-sum withdrawals were only available in special circumstances.

Read our Full withdrawals now available for term allocated pension members notification for more information.

October 2025

1 October 2025

RI Allocated Pension and Transition to Retirement Pension members

To keep up with the cost of living, Retirement Income Pension members can choose to have their pension payments automatically increased (indexed) each year.

Annual pension payments can be indexed in line with the Perth Consumer Price Index (CPI) or by a set percentage, to a maximum of 5%.

For more details, read our We’re introducing a new feature for our Retirement Income Pension notification.

July 2025

10 July 2025

Gold State Super members

Changes to GESB’s governing regulations, the State Superannuation Regulations 2001 (WA), have been made to enable unconditional access to Gold State Super benefits for members aged 65 who are still working in the WA public sector.

Read our State super changes to improve benefit access for Gold State Super members notification for more information.

May 2025

1 July 2025

GESB Super and West State Super members

We introduced changes to premiums and other policy terms and conditions for Death, Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) and Salary Continuance Insurance (SCI) cover for GESB Super and West State Super members, including a reduction in premium rates for certain insurances.

Read our Insurance changes: GESB Super and West State Super notification for more information.

May 2025

12 May 2025

All members

Changes to GESB’s governing legislation, the State Superannuation Act 2000, are being implemented.

  • As of 12 May, GESB can accept super contributions into a GESB Super account from employers not part of the WA State Government, so members can stay with GESB no matter who they work for
  • Stapling of superannuation accounts will come into effect at a later date for eligible members, so that they can follow an employee when changing jobs

Read our Changes to state super rules now in effect notification for more information.

December 2024

6 December 2024

All members

The WA State Government approved changes to GESB’s governing legislation, the State Superannuation Act 2000 (the Act), which means:

  • Stapling of superannuation accounts will come into effect at a later date for eligible members, so that they can follow an employee when changing jobs
  • GESB will be able to accept super contributions into a GESB Super account from employers not part of the WA State Government in the future, so members with non-government employment can continue to contribute to GESB
  • The GESB Board can appoint acting directors in the event of an extended absence of a director
  • The GESB Board can assist the WA Treasurer to administer the Act

Read our Changes to the State Superannuation Act 2000 notification for more information.

September 2024

25 September 2024

GESB Super and West State Super members

To align with Australian Government’s Protecting Your Super legislation, GESB introduced changes to stop inactive GESB Super and West State Super accounts from being eroded by fees.

GESB will now cancel insurance in accounts that have not received relevant contributions for 16 months (‘inactive accounts’) and transfer inactive accounts with a balance below $6,000 to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Read our Protecting Your Super notification for more information.

September 2023

27 September 2023

GESB Super, West State Super and Retirement Income Allocated Pension members

We introduced a new Sustainable Balanced investment plan on 27 September 2023.

Read our New Sustainable Balanced investment plan notification for more information.

October 2022

1 October 2022

GESB Super and West State Super members

Changes to premiums and policy terms and conditions for the Death, Total & Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance and Salary Continuance Insurance (SCI) offered through GESB Super and West State Super took effect on 1 October 2022.

Read our Insurance changes notification: GESB Super and West State Super (2022) for more information.

May 2021

19 June 2021

GESB Super and West State Super members

As a result of negotiations with our Insurer, changes to premiums and policy terms and conditions for the Death, Total & Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance and Salary Continuance Insurance (SCI) offered through GESB Super and West State Super took effect on 19 June 2021.

For more information, read our Insurance changes notification: GESB Super and West State Super (2021).

August 2019

1 October 2019

GESB Super and West State Super members

Changes to premiums and policy terms and conditions for the Death, Total & Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance and Salary Continuance Insurance (SCI) offered through GESB Super and West State Super took effect on 1 October 2019.

Read our Insurance changes notification: GESB Super and West State Super for a summary of the changes to terms and conditions

May 2017

1 July 2017

Transition to Retirement Pension members

From 1 July 2017, investment earnings from Transition to Retirement accounts are no longer tax exempt.

These earnings are now taxed at a concessional rate of up to 15%

For more information, read our Transition to Retirement changes notification.

March 2017

1 July 2017

All members

The WA State Government made changes to state super regulations, which meant that we are able to:

  • Move our communications to all members online
  • Close GESB Super and West State Super accounts, if they have a balance of zero and haven't received a contribution or roll-in in the previous two years
  • Transfer GESB Super benefits of members who have permanently emigrated to New Zealand, to KiwiSaver accounts

For more information, read Changes to super and retirement accounts.

March 2016

1 July 2016

GESB Super and West State Super members

We introduced changes to premiums and other policy terms and conditions for Death, Total and Permanent Disablement, and Salary Continuance Insurance cover.

For more information, read our Insurance changes notification.

March 2016

1 July 2016

All members

We introduced pay-for-service fees for our Retirement Options Service, and for certain transactions such as Family Law splitting and full and partial withdrawals.

For more information, read our Service fee notification.

Please note: we removed our transaction fees, effective 15 December 2018.

February 2015

1 July 2015

GESB Super, West State Super and Retirement Income Pension members

As a result of a pricing review, we introduced changes to our administration fees.

For GESB Super, the administration fee for a small number of members increased, while for West State Super and Retirement Income Pension, administration fees were reduced.

For more information, see Fee changes to GESB accounts.

February 2015

1 July 2015

GESB Super and West State Super members

In line with Australian Prudential Regulation Authority regulated funds and Commonwealth provisions, member protection on GESB Super and West State Super accounts was removed.

As a result, administration fees that are higher than the investment earnings for accounts with balances under $1,000 are no longer reimbursed.

For more information, read our Product update.

Our service providers

Excluding our investment managers listed on the investment managers page, the table below sets out the name and Australian Business Number of each outsourced service provider that has provided, at any time in the previous 12 months, a service which may affect a material business activity of GESB.

Our service providers
Name Australian Business Number (ABN)

AIA Australia Limited

79 004 837 861

Australian Administration Services Pty Ltd (MUFG)

62 003 429 114

Frontier Advisors Pty Ltd

21 074 287 406

Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd

55 153 168 140

Proficiency Group Pty Ltd

22 600 201 241

Squiz Australia Pty Ltd

53 131 581 247

The Northern Trust Company

62 126 279 918

Our conflicts management policy

Our conflicts management policy identifies conflicts that may arise in the course of business operations. We have established policies to ensure employees and Board directors are aware of their obligation to disclose duties or interests that may give rise to a conflict of interest. We have also created procedures to understand, identify, evaluate, monitor, manage and disclose conflicts of interest.

Our Code of Conduct

GESB’s Code of Conduct provides information to support ethical and accountable behaviour and builds on the requirements of section 9 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994 where all employees are required to comply with their agency’s Code of Conduct and:

  • Act with integrity in the performance of official duties
  • Use official information, equipment and facilities responsibly
  • Exercise courtesy, consideration and sensitivity when interacting with members of the public and other employees

Modern slavery statement

We have voluntarily prepared our modern slavery statement in line with our responsibility to members and stakeholders to manage modern slavery risks.

We are committed to identifying modern slavery risks within our operations and supply chains, to avoid directly or indirectly contributing to modern slavery.

Investment governance

Our investment governance statement outlines the legislative requirements and the Treasurer's Prudential Guidelines for Investments, relating to our Board's responsibilities for investing our members' superannuation.

The statement also sets out our investment process, including our approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and proxy voting.

Our Proxy Voting Policy

Investing in equities provides investors with ownership and, in most cases, voting rights. GESB considers it best practice for the right to vote on securities to be exercised. We believe our external fund managers are generally best placed to exercise proxy votes for the securities they manage on our behalf, and in accordance with our obligations and objectives as a WA State Government statutory authority.

During the last financial year, there were no instances where we exercised our voting rights due to an actual or perceived conflict of interest or reputation risk for GESB or the State.

All proxy voting is carried out by our appointed investment managers, in line with our Proxy Voting Policy.

Proxy voting dashboard

The proxy voting dashboard is an interactive display of GESB’s voting activities including how we exercised our voting rights associated with our Australian and International equities holdings.

The dashboard is managed by an external service provider, ISS Governance. To view the dashboard, click the button below to go to their website.

View the proxy voting dashboard

Actuarial reports

Freedom of information

You can request access to documents held by us that are not already publicly available for viewing or purchase through our freedom of information process.

Page last updated 11 June 2026