Annual Members' Meeting: Dedicated to serving you
18 February 2022
5
min read
Chair Don Luke addressed QSuper’s second Annual Members' Meeting on 2 February 2022. Here’s what he had to say:
QSuper’s purpose now, as it always has been and will always be, is to serve you, our members. We are always interested in finding new ways to meet your needs, and importantly, hearing from you about your emerging needs and concerns.
We meet on close to the second anniversary of the emergence of the COVID global pandemic, which has had such serious consequences around the world.
I want to pay tribute to the outstanding work that so many of you do to support our communities. As we prepare to enter our third year grappling with COVID, many of you have first-hand experience of its impact.
Many of you work on the front lines of our health system, educate our children in and away from the classroom, maintain community health through securing borders, or at quarantine centres, or coordinate the delivery of so many services needed to keep the community functioning. You all have continued to support our community through what has been an incredibly unpredictable and difficult time.
At QSuper, we deeply respect the roles you play and on behalf of all our staff and the broader community, I again express our most sincere gratitude for the work you do.
Working hard to support your retirementShow content
While you are focussed on supporting our communities, we at QSuper are focussed on supporting you.
Our role is to enhance your superannuation, while you are working hard to keep the community secure.
I am pleased to say that in the past year we have continued to achieve that ambition. In the year to June 30, 2021, we exceeded our investment objectives across the board.
The Accumulation account Balanced option produced a strong 13.7% return. This was well above its objective of CPI plus 3.5% which equated to 6%.
You are of course aware that the past few years have been an incredibly volatile period, for the global economy. Our investment strategy at QSuper is designed to give our members a “smooth ride”. That means we aim to provide strong investment returns with fewer ups and downs along the way.
I am pleased to report that in addition to our strong performance in the 2020-21 financial year, our annual performance over the past 10 years was 8.6% for the Accumulation account Balanced option – one of the stronger returns in the nation.
Service and innovation recognisedShow content
Superannuation is a wonderful and valuable addition to the nation’s financial infrastructure, but we recognise that financial returns must be matched by high levels of service and continual innovation.
Our strength is demonstrated through the range of awards we hold, particularly those that recognise our pension products and our unique investment strategy.
I’m delighted to report that in October 2021, QSuper was once again awarded the SuperRatings Pension Fund of the Year Award, the fourth year in a row we have won the award on behalf of you, our members. We were also awarded the SuperRatings Smooth Ride investment award.
In December we were also honoured to receive the Money magazine Best Value MySuper award.
Dedicated staff drive high standardsShow content
Our ability to meet these high-performance standards is testament to the dedication and skills of our staff, who genuinely put members first in all their considerations. QSuper is a fund that exists solely for members, not external shareholders. Our success is your success.
And this is heavily due to the efforts of the QSuper team. I want to pay credit to their efforts in remaking their ways of working through the COVID experience. Every business has had to do this, but I believe few have seamlessly transitioned to a hybrid, office-home workplace, as we have.
Superannuation is a long-term investment. Our oldest members are now in their second century. Our youngest members will live into the next century, when they should rightly expect we will continue to be delivering, to their financial needs.
Merger set to serve members’ best interestsShow content
Most of you would be aware that for the past two years we have been pursuing a merger with Sunsuper. That journey is now reaching its end and on 28 February 2022 QSuper will become part of Australian Retirement Trust, which will be created from that merger.
We firmly believe the merger will be in the best interests of the members of both funds, and that we will be stronger together. This will be a fund with more than two million members and more than $230 billion in funds under management, the second largest in Australia.
We fully anticipate the merger will create an organisation that can draw on the advantages of scale, both through how it invests, and how it relates to members.
As QSuper members you should not notice any immediate changes on the date of the merger. As time progresses, the benefits from the joining of two strong superannuation funds, headquartered in Queensland, and serving all Australians, will flow through to all members.
Superannuation and financial services are a continually changing environment, and your trustees believe that merging with Sunsuper, will offer our members greater long-term financial returns. Matched with excellence in service, that comes from scale, we believe we go into the future in a strong position.
I can assure you, the decision to merge was only made after the most rigorous and lengthy consideration of all the issues.
The QSuper name will be retained within Australian Retirement Trust, because of the importance of our strong public service heritage.
Climate change shapes as a huge opportunityShow content
Another key issue is our approach to climate change.
In the past year the environmental impact of human activity on our planet has taken on a renewed focus, as global leaders made new and stronger commitments to tackle climate change, at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Glasgow.
QSuper sees climate change, not just as a financial risk that we must manage on behalf of our members, but as an enormous opportunity to be part of the efforts to make our world more sustainable.
As trustees, we understand that taking strong meaningful action on climate change is exceptionally important for all of us.
We have an active program to make our portfolio of investments more sustainable, and to understand and limit the impact of climate change on our investments.
We have committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and to that end, in the past year we have substantially rebalanced our equities portfolios, to align them with our objective to invest in accordance with the Paris Agreement on climate, greatly reducing our carbon footprint. We also continue to work on how we improve the sustainability of our unlisted assets.
We are working on this methodically and with great care and you will see and hear of continued advances in this area.
I would also like to pay tribute to our former CEO Michael Pennisi, who finished in that role in October last year, after six years leading QSuper.
As CEO, Michael led QSuper through the transformation from a public sector fund to a public offer fund open to all Australians.
During this time, QSuper established its own insurance business, QInsure, and invested significantly in a range of new products, services, and advice to members, whilst investing heavily in technology and IT security, to support the digitisation of our offering to members.
Michael helped to foster the culture that keeps QSuper focussed solely on members’ interests and his leadership through the uncertainty created by COVID, has helped put the fund in the strong position that it is in today. He was also very supportive of the merger with Sunsuper.
We thank Michael again for his many years of service to QSuper, and wish him the best in his future endeavours.