SGIO is an insurance company in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Established in 1926 as the State Government Insurance Office by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

, it provides personal and commercial

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

. It is a subsidiary of

Insurance Australia Group Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) is a multinational insurance company. It is the largest general insurance company in Australia, and also the largest in New Zealand through its subsidiary IAG New Zealand. IAG had its origins in the Nati ...

History

On 15 June 1926, the

established the State Government Insurance Office (SGIO) to provide

workers' compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

insurance to miners in the

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

goldfields. In August 1992, the

Lawrence Government Carmen Mary Lawrence (born 2 March 1948) is an Australian academic and former politician who was the Premier of Western Australia from 1990 to 1993, the first woman to become the premier of an Australian state. A member of the Australian Labor ...

announced the SGIO was to be sold. This was completed in March 1994 with the SGIO listed on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

(ASX). In 1998 the

NRMA NRMA (formerly National Roads and Motorists' Association) is an Australian organisation offering roadside assistance, advocacy for motorists and road-users, motoring advice, car servicing, International Driving Permits, travel and other services ...

and

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

both made

takeover offer In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

s with the NRMA ultimately successful and the SGIO delisted from the ASX in January 1999. In August 2000, it became part of the

when this was spun off from the NRMA. SGIO held a monopoly in its early days in workers compensation insurance which made this company a strong competitor. SGIO now provides both personal and commercial insurances and is one of Western Australia's largest general insurance companies. Subsequently, other forms of insurance were offered through SGIO. The company was initially registered as a general insurer and first started to shift its main focus towards life insurance in 1932.Cowan, P 2005, ‘Of the people, by the people, for the people’ Workers Compensation in Queensland: The Rise and Fall of a Policy Community’, PhD Thesis, Griffith University, Queensland This was shown in its company magazine ''Insurance Lines'', which was established in 1917, where the pages began to be dominated by information regarding life insurance instead of its previous main focus which was worker's compensation insurance. By the 1970s life insurance began to be SGIO's main achievement and focal point. Because of this expansion into different areas of insurance, SGIO became a main competitor in all areas of insurance. In the 1970s the Queensland office formed the SGIO Building Society, after a series of other Queensland building societies were united together, and with this, they began to incorporate a strategy that would help begin their privatisation. This strategy included acquiring the Permanent Finance Corporation and becoming a major shareholder in the

Bank of Queensland The Bank of Queensland (branded BOQ) is an Australian retail bank with headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland. The bank is one of the oldest financial institutions in Queensland, having begun as a building society. It now has 163 branches througho ...

In 2011, SGIO conducted the Reversing Visibility Index by testing 243 cars on their reversing cameras. With this test, they found that 14 percent scored a full five-star rating (the five-star rating indicated better reversing visibility than all other vehicles) with was higher than their previous testing in 2010. This testing was a result of previous research from SGIO that showed 65 percent of Western Australian drivers had a near miss while reversing. SGIO showed their support after this testing for reverse cameras as it showed an improvement in safety ratings. The company then called for manufacturers to continue the trend of including reverse cameras in new cars.

Sponsorships

SGIO was a major sponsor of the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

from

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

until

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. It became the West Coast Eagles'

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

sponsor in 2000. SGIO and the West Coast Eagles started up a campaign called “SGIO Surprisingly Good Goals” to help raise money for charities that help the community in Western Australia. This campaign raises money by having SGIO donate $200 per West Coast goal. They also were able to engage the fans into this campaign event by having them submit their own videos of their “good goals” and donated $20 to charity per submission. In 2016 SGIO and the West Coast Eagles reached their goal of $100,000 and with this money raised, they were able to donate to three different charities in Western Australia. The three charities included: Reconciliation WA, Lifeline WA and the Motor Neurone Disease Association of WA.

References

External links

Official SGIO Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sgio Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Financial services companies established in 1926 Insurance companies of Australia Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Former government-owned companies of Western Australia Australian companies established in 1926