HESTA membership has reached the one million mark.
The $70 billion industry super fund was established in 1987 (before the introduction of the national Superannuation Guarantee) to extend superannuation benefits to more women, with an initial focus on predominately female workforces in health and community services.
HESTA CEO Debby Blakey said reaching one million members is an important milestone for the fund, noting that increased scale helps HESTA continue delivering super with impact, creating positive outcomes for members.
“Our members are mainly women working part-time or casually in often lower-paid sectors such as aged care or early childhood education,” Blakey said.
“Many miss out on the full benefits of super because they take unpaid time out of the workforce to care for others.”
The fund has also long advocated for equity measures to make Australia’s super system fairer, 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.
Following years of advocacy from HESTA and others, the $450 monthly wages threshold for payment of super was scrapped in 2022, ending a long-standing super system inequity that disproportionately impacted women.