“The role of Qantas chairman obviously is one that requires the confidence of the board and shareholders. While I retain that confidence I’ll get to work and do the things we need to do to deal with some of the issues we’ve got at the moment,” he told the ABC.
“People want me to continue to do the role and I think I’m well suited to do it.”
Maxine Brenner is one of the longest serving directors on the Qantas board. Last month,she notched up a decade with the airline,while also serving on the Telstra,Woolworths and Origin boards.
Maxine Brenner has been a director of Qantas for the past decade.
Brenner’s total remuneration in the 2022-23 financial year grew 44 per cent to $404,000,including travel benefits.
Qantas directors are also entitled to travel benefits as part of their remuneration. Directors receive three long-haul flights and nine short-haul flights annually,as do their spouses,and any offspring under 26.
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“They shouldn’t be getting pay raises,” says Vas Kolesnikoff,head of research at Institutional Shareholders Services in Australia and New Zealand.
“The issue now is whether shareholders,in their annual general meeting vote and in discussions behind the scenes,will be holding those directors accountable for what’s been going on.”
Corporate governance experts said that while pay was an issue,the important questions are:have the Qantas directors done a good job,in terms of their performance,and are they the best people to serve as directors on the airline’s board?
“We are yet to see clear accountability from the board and management,” said Louise Davidson,chief executive of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors.
“The Qantas[annual] report is interesting for what it doesn’t say. There is no discussion of board accountability for ongoing customer issues,the recent High Court decision and the ACCC investigation. That is what investors would like to understand.”
Earlier this month,Qantas suffered a further blow to its reputation,when theHigh Court upheld lower court rulings that the airline acted illegally when it sacked 1700 baggage and ground staff during the pandemic. The damages from that High Court decision are to be determined.
Jacqueline Hey is another director who notched up a decade as a Qantas director last month. Hey’s total remuneration as a Qantas director grew by 20 per cent to $316,000.
The total package of Belinda Hutchinson,who has been a Qantas director for five years,rose 26 per cent to $363,000.
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The remuneration of Michael L’Estrange,who is departing the Qantas board after more than seven years,barely grew to $250,000. He will step down at the company’s annual meeting in November. Goyder thanked L’Estrange earlier this year for his service and called him an incredibly “diligent director”.
Tony Tyler,a Qantas director,received an increase of almost 9 per cent,in his total package to $309,000. Advertising executive Todd Sampson,who has been a Qantas director since 2015,received a pay rise of 16 per cent to $278,000.
Institutional shareholders and corporate governance groups are meeting with Goyder and the board ahead of Qantas’ annual meeting on November 3,to ask what they knew of the ACCC investigation and the flight credits scandal.
The ACCC investigation was under way when the board signed off on Joyce selling $17 million worth of shares on June 1,which has also raised concerns with shareholders. Qantas shares have fallen from $6.38 after Joyce’s sale,to trading recently at $5.36.
Joyce was at the helm of Qantas for almost 15 years,and was one of the nation’s longest serving chief executives. He was paid $21.4 million on his departure,with half-a-million dollars docked from his exit package.
A claw back of Joyce’s potential $14.4 million in short-term and long-term bonuses remains at the board’s discretion.
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