AGM season, council secrecy, Copyright, pokies, Piccinini sisters, domestic violence, capital raisings and family news

Dear Mayne Report readers,

Greetings for the first time since our last bumper email edition on October 12. If you'd rather not receive these occasional email newsletters, click here to unsubscribe. If you like it, here is the web version you can tweet or send to your friends.

AGM season wrap

With the Melbourne Cup out of the way, it is now officially the second half of the corporate AGM season and we've had quite a burst of activity over the past two days, including a big remuneration protests at Downer EDI and McMahon Holdings yesterday.
Jack Tilburn made the two and half hour Fairfax AGM quite tedious in Sydney today, as if shareholders didn't have enough to worry about given the stock fell 4.3c after this gloomy trading update.

With Gina Rinehart off the register, there were less protest votes than in recent years, although more than 10% was voted against the re-election of Gina's mate Jack Cowin who really shouldn't be there given he's conflicted by his ongoing role as a director of Ten Network Holdings.

There was also a 5% protest vote against the latest incentive grant to Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood.

These sorts of protests are nothing compared to what News Corp and Rupert Murdoch are copping, as was noted in this recent Crikey story.

Time for AGM transcripts to become standard practice

From first reportedly not even planning to turn up, James Packer proceeded to make a series of newsworthy statements at last month's Crown Resorts AGM. However, none of these comments have been officially published or recorded by Crown, as was explained in this Crikey story which is now out from behind the paywall.

Compare that with Insurance Australia Group which is one of the few listed companies to provided a full transcript of its entire AGM as a matter of course. Full marks to IAG! Does anyone else do this?

The AGM is the one day of the year where the chairman and full board must front up in public and openly discuss the company's operations. The ASX and the Australian Investor Relations Association needs to get with the program and mandate AGM transcripts from all ASX200 companies.

AIRA, to its credit, says the following in its best practice guidelines: “Provide live webcasts of AGMs including the question-and-answer sessions and/or a full transcript of proceedings, including the formal speeches and presentations and relevant question-and-answer exchanges."

The next best option to a transcript is a full audio archive, which no Packer company has ever provided, despite their decades profiting from broadcast media.

I've found companies have been pretty responsive over the years when asked to provide AGM transcripts. See this list of more than 20 examples.

And here some partial AGM transcripts that we have done ourselves on the gender diversity debate at AGMs. As you can see, targeted questions can elicit very interesting answers at AGMs but all too often the companies then go out of their way to not make these available to a wider audience.

Sadly, this year's AGM season has seen more nutters than usual, especially in Sydney, so you can understand why some boards don't want to re-broadcast their ravings.

ANZ coming under further pressure over carbon financing

ANZ is facing another shareholder resolution at next month's AGM from the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility on the question of better disclosing its carbon financing exposures, even after improving its coal financing policies last month and setting a good example for other banks. That said, ANZ remains the largest financier to the Australian coal industry.

We helped represent the ACCR resolution at last year's ANZ AGM and were disappointed in the tactics of the bank along with the attitude displayed by new chairman David Gonski. See this full account of the meeting from the Crikey archive.

The ANZ notice of meeting is not yet out but here's hoping they don't maintain their dreadful record when it comes to constructing biased ballot papers.

The board's recommendation on this ACCR special resolution proposing a new clause in the constitution will be most interesting to read:

"The company in general meeting may by ordinary resolution express an opinion or request information about the way in which a power of the company partially or exclusively vested in the directors has been or should be exercised. However, such a resolution must relate to an issue of material relevance to the company or the company's business and cannot either advocate action which would violate any law or relate to any personal claim or grievance. Such a resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company."

What is wrong with US-style shareholder resolutions which express a non-binding opinion about major issues the company is dealing with?

Here's hoping the big four proxy advisers in the Australian market - Ownership Matters, CGI Glass Lewis, ISS and the Australian Shareholders' Association - see fit to support amending the ANZ constitution in a way that gives shareholders a greater voice. Why wouldn't you?

If the 75% super majority is achieved, ANZ shareholders will then get to vote on this contingent shareholder resolution which the Gonski-led board is resisting, even though the likes of Santos have previously accepted similar resolutions which express non-binding opinions about operational matters:

That in order to address our interest in the longer term success of the Company, given the recognised risks and opportunities associated with climate change, we as shareholders of the company:

(a) request that the Board of Directors report to shareholders by end-August 2016, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, their assessment of our exposure to climate change risk and carbon intensive businesses in our lending, investing and financing activities (utilising whatever metrics the board find most appropriate); and

(b) express our view that it is in the best interests of our company that, by end-August 2016, our board set public targets and a timetable for reductions in the extent of that exposure.

Can't see any reason why institutional shareholders who take climate change seriously wouldn't want to read such a report.

Secretive councils rolled as sun finally shines in at the MAV

After rejoining Victoria's peak local government body in 2012, City of Melbourne has run into ongoing resistance at the Municipal Association of Victoria state council meetings when it comes to promoting transparency and governance issues across the sector.

The full documentation on this was pulled together in this recent council report, which showed 7 out of 19 City of Melbourne motions since 2013 were rejected by MAV delegates, the worst win rate of any Victorian council in recent years.

Delegates, many of whom represent conservative rural councils, have rejected proposals such as having more women speak at MAV conferences, disclosing senior executive salaries at the MAV, revealing council asset valuations, having directly elected mayors and even disclosing who voted for and against individual resolutions in the minutes of council meetings.

However, something different happened at the latest MAV state council meeting on October 23 when four City of Melbourne transparency proposals prevailed, much to the annoyance of long-serving MAV CEO Rob Spence and veteran rural President Bill McArthur.

Incredibly, MAV has been locking the press and the public out of state council meetings for years, even though most delegates did not know this was the management practice.

Permanently closed council meetings are illegal across Australia and even our major political parties allow the press in to cover their state and federal conferences. The same goes with public company AGMs.

The impact of keeping councillor debate confidential has been that debate at MAV state council often lacks vigour and passion.

With little public scrutiny, President McArthur regularly encourages delegates to keep their contributions brief so everyone can get through 40-80 motions before a hot lunch is served.

Year after year, the formal agenda allocates an hour for post-lunch debating of motions through until state conference is scheduled to close at 3pm, but everything is wrapped up by lunch time. The October 23 state council meeting was no different.

Attempts to improve governance and transparency are openly resisted in local government circles.

When City of Melbourne proposed a 7-point transparency motion for the Australian Local Government Association national general assembly in Canberra, President McArthur was one of the ALGA directors who decided to place it last on the agenda at number 80.

In the end it was smashed with about 85% of voting delegates opposing it, many of whom were egged on by their council CEOs who resist having their 6-figure contract terms disclosed.

The ALGA vote also demonstrated that the more points you put in an omnibus governance motion, the less chance it has of succeeding because there will always be something in there to oppose.

This was the secret to City of Melbourne's unexpected recent MAV win which was originally submitted in the following form and was placed as motion 18 on the notice paper:

That the MAV State Council:

1. Resolves to open this State Council and all future State Council meetings to registered members of the media and, to the extent practicable, interested members of the public.

2. Authorises management to record all future State Council meetings in full and make the audio publicly available on the MAV website.

3. Requests the MAV Board to distribute draft State Council motions to delegates without consolidation or amendment at least five weeks before State Council, thereby allowing member councils an opportunity to directly seek amendment before the final distribution of papers at least two weeks before State Council. Submitting Councils are entitled to amend existing motions up to three weeks before State Council.

4. Resolves to publish the names of councils which fail to attend State Council in the minutes of the meeting.

Given that point 1 related to that day's state council, it should have been dealt with first, but President McArthur refused to bring it forward when requested on the basis that media and the public weren't exactly lining up at The Sofitel to get in.

It would probably have gone down as an omnibus and amendments were being submitted removing point 1, so I asked that it be dealt with separately from the other three points.

Many of the rurals wanted to oppose it but struggled to mount an argument given that all their own council meetings are completely open to the media and the public.

They knew that a division would have exposed them as voting for secrecy, just as was laid out on the City of Melbourne website from all the earlier divisions on our defeated governance motions.

Lo and behold, it prevailed 48 votes to 30.

Herald Sun journalist Andrew Jefferson had arrived at The Sofitel a few minutes before the debate and after originally being refused entry, insisted that he be let in after delegates had voted to let the sun shine in.

President McArthur then sourly cautioned delegates to be mindful that the MAV's least favourite newspaper was about to enter the inner sanctum of local government policy making.

This lead to about 10 motions in a row where there was absolutely no debate.

From now on there will be no more hiding because delegates also narrowly voted to approve the other three points in the motion, the most important being an audio recording of state council appearing on the MAV website.

Incredibly, President McArthur later complained in the Herald Sun that the transparency measures would come at a “heavy cost” and he cited the recently aborted Bendigo council meeting because of screaming by feral anti-mosque protestors.
Loutish behaviour by squeaky wheels should never be used as an excuse to permanently remove public scrutiny of politicians. Instead, the individual situation should be managed. If racists start chanting at the next MAV state council, they can all be kicked out on the day.

The same thing happened at the recent Transfield AGM when two refugee advocates interrupted the chairman's formal address, but they were removed and the show went on.

Just Get Active: Council innovation in tackling the obesity challenge

Labor Party journey man and all round good guy Nicholas Reece gave an excellent speech at the recent MAV annual conference, held the day before State Council.

He's on the advisory panel for the Victorian Government's ambitious reform challenge of completely re-writing the Local Government Act.

The LGA has become more and more prescriptive over the years, trying to legislate against every last possible council transgression.

Reece, a former Brumby and Gillard adviser who also served as ALP State Secretary in Victoria, professed to supporting a far more flexible model which enables the sector to get on with what it does.

He said this deregulatory approach would better allow councils to become the laboratories of government where it doesn't really matter if some policy innovation fails because there is no state-wide impact.

This got me thinking and I then came across something Strathbogie Shire has tried to tackle the increasing problem of childhood obesity.

There's an excellent service being offered to schools called Just Get Active which locks in daily exercise programs for school kids at a cost of just $9 per child each year.

Schools that have tried it rave, but the challenge is getting a scaled roll-out.

Strathbogie Shire looked at this and just went bang, funding the $4000 required to get every public school kid in Strathbogie signed up without the needless bureaucracy of a selling challenge into every small country small.

It's an example of good nimble public policy making, at the local level.

City of Melbourne leads the way on Copyright

After quite a deal of internal City of Melbourne discussion over the past few months, it was terrific to get unanimous support for this motion at the October council meeting. It is important to read the full background to get the complete picture:

That Council requests management to:

1. pro-actively seek to promptly become licensed by the Copyright Agency Ltd before January 1, 2016 on the same terms as other comparable councils;

2. fund any 2015-16 licence fee payment from the surplus.

Background

Whilst the number is growing, less than 5% of Australian councils have a general licensing agreement with Copyright Agency Ltd, the central agency responsible for royalty payments to Australian authors, journalists and publishers for the reproduction of their original works.

Despite Melbourne being a City of Literature, City of Melbourne is not presently one of those circa 30 licensed councils.

By way of contrast, approximately 75% of all councils in the UK have a copyright licence with the equivalent agency.

100% of State & Territory and 100% of Commonwealth Government employees and departments have a copyright licence with Copyright Agency Ltd, so local councils, despite being a creation of the states, represent a gaping hole of non-compliance.

Australia's copyright industries employ 900,000 people and generate economic value equal to 9% of GDP or some $97.7 billion annually.

Creators and publishers of original works do so because copyright delivers a means by which those works can be nurtured and protected.

Copyright is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 27 (2) states: "Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author."

CAL estimates it will cost Australia's 560 councils an average of $3600 each per year to be licensed.

Preliminary discussions with CAL suggest the annual cost to City of Melbourne would be in the order of $30,000.

At the moment, the local government sector is contributing less than $150,000 per year in license payments to CAL, compared with the $60 million which CAL currently receives annually from private and public schools.

City of Melbourne should show leadership to others in the local government sector by pro-actively seeking to be licensed by CAL.

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Apologies we don't provide transcripts but you can listen to the full audio archive of the Copyright debate here, starting at the 24 minute mark.

Meanwhile, the agenda has just gone up for next Tuesday's City of Melbourne committee meeting. Remember, anyone can come along to our twice monthly committee meeting (usually the first two Tuesdays, besides Cup Day) and ask an unscripted oral question at the start or the end of the meeting. It's good for accountability and transparency.

If you want to listen back to see how some of the committee meetings have opened with questions, go here.

ASA opens up its proxy voting advice

Any retail investor worth their salt should be a member of the Australian Shareholders' Association and it was good to see the Herald Sun recently spell out the important role played by the ASA.

The ASA website has a useful array of interesting research lists, some of which are member-only behind the paywall. Here are a few favourites:

Longest serving ASX 200 directors

New CEOs who embrace write-offs

Measuring independent chairs for "skin in the game"

Capped SPPs which were then expanded

How retail investors do worse with separate bookbuilds

The 100 most important remuneration protest votes

31 examples of where retail investors gathered 100 signatures

ASA is this season publishing voting intentions reports free on its website, making it easier for investors to allocate proxies from an informed position. This is a good move and will ensure more people will see the considered work of ASA's 100-strong army of volunteer company monitors.

However, if you want to see all the research plus the full archive of AGM reports and voting recommendations since 2009, you really should become a member. Click here.



Measuring the outcome of PAITREO capital raisings

We've produced a lot of stories over the past few years about the poor treatment of retail shareholders in capital raisings.

The system has certainly improved since major issuers adopted the PAITREO model which is without doubt the fairest for small investors.

It was therefore disappointing to read this whinge about the Treasury Wine Estates PAITREO in today's Fairfax press.

So what if retail investors only have eight days to consider the offer? This is better than the institutions who are given only 48 hours and don't get the option of selling their rights on market - the key advantage retail has with the PAITREO.

The only possible downside of PAITREOs is that non-participating retail investors sometimes get lower compensation from the later bookbuild.

This is because the retail shortfall can sometimes be very large and capital raisings also tend to be launched at the high point in market cycles. A shorter retail offer period is therefore probably a good thing.

If retail investors start moaning about PAITREOs, it will only lead to worse offers. For instance, if there is an institutional placement with no Share Purchase Plan, retail shareholders are completely ignored and diluted. This has lead to board tilts against the likes of Ten and Santos over the years and is now very rare among the ASX200.

We still get attempts to unfairly cap SPPs but even this is now improving as can see from this list of companies which expanded soft caps after being deluged with applications.

Today we launch a new piece of research which assesses who was the winner in a PAITREO offer in terms of the separate bookbuilds for non-participants. And please note the black mark against CBA for poor disclosure, which I've raised directly with the ASX.

Retail vs instos - who did best in PAITREO bookbuilds?

Origin Energy, Oct-Nov 2015: $2.5 billion 4-for-7 raising at $4. $1.35 billion insto offer was 92% subscribed with $108m shortfall clearing at $5.20, returning $1.20 to non-participants. $1.2 billion retail offer 67% subscribed and 100m shortfall shares fetched $5.35, returning a premium of $1.35. This hefty $535m raising sold at a 5.1% discount given the stock closed at $5.64 the day before. Retail were the winner with 15c more compensation.

Treasury Wine Estates, Oct-Nov 2015: 2-for-15 at $5.60 to raise $486 million. 89% take-up of $368 million institutional offer with $41 million shortfall clearing at $7.10. The $119 million retail offer was 57% subscribed and the 9.1m shortfall shares cleared at $7.16, returning $1.16 to non-participants, so a win for retail who got an extra 6c.
Westpac, Oct-Nov 2015: $3.5 billion 1-for-23 at $25.50. $1.6 billion insto offer was 95% subscribed with $80 million shortfall clearing at $30, returning $4.50 to non-participants. $1.9 billion retail offer.... (yet to happen)

CBA, August-September 2015: $5.1 billion 1-for-23 raising at $71.50. $2.1 billion institutional component was 90% subscribed and shortfall cleared at $78, returning $6.50 to non-participants. $3 billion retail offer was 50% subscribed and raised $1.5 billion. Shortfall of $1.5 billion cleared at $73.50 returning $2 to non-participating retail investors, so a win for the Instos who got an extra $4.50 in compo.

NAB, May-June 2015: $5.5 billion raising at $28.50. $2.7 billion institutional component was 97% subscribed and $100m shortfall cleared at $33.80, returning $5.30 to non-participants. $2.8b retail offer was 72% subscribed with $2.04 billion raised. Shortfall of 28.5m shares cleared at $31.60, returning $3.10 to non-participating retail investors, so a win for the instos who got an extra $2.20 in compensation.

Tabcorp, Feb-March 2015: $236 million 1-for-12 raising at $3.70. Insto offer 92% subscribed with 3.2m share shortfall cleared at $4.51, returning 81c. Retail shortfall of 7.7m shares cleared at $4.52, returning 82c to non-participants, so a win for retail by 1c.

Arrium, Aug-Sept 2014: $754m raising including $656m 1-for-1 raising at 48c. $367m insto entitlement offer was supported by 77% but shortfall cleared at offer price of 48c so no compo. $290m retail component only attracted about $12m in applications and shortfallfailed to clear, going to the under-writers. Everyone a loser, especially under-writers and instos who participated, but no winner on shortfall sales.

AGL, Sept 2014: $1.23b 1-for-5 offer at $11. Insto component raised $516m with 95% take-up. 2.3m shortfall shares cleared at $2.85. 56,000 retail shareholders took up $500m or 70% of retail offer. The 19.7m retail share shortfall cleared at $2.25 so a win for the instos by 60c.

ALS, July 2013: $246m 1-for-11 at $7.80. $112m raised in insto component with 92% take-up as shortfall cleared at 95c. $134m retail offer had healthy 78% participation rate and shortfall also cleared at 95c, so no winner.

ASX, June 2013: $553m 2-for-19 at $30. Insto component $267m with 96% take-up as shortfall cleared at $3.70. $286m retail offer had 75% take-up with $3.40 clearing price in bookbuild, so a win for instos by 30c.

Brambles, June 2012: $450m 1-for-20 at $6.05. Insto offer raised $333m with 83% take-up rate. Shortfall of 9.2m shares cleared at 45c. Retail offer raised 68m with 61% take-up rate. 7.8m retail shortfall cleared at 25c. A win for instos by 20c.

AGL, May 2012: $904m 1-for-6 at $11.60. The $356m insto offer had a 95% take-up and 1.4m shortfall cleared at $2.85. 60,000 retail shareholders applied for $404m worth of shares in the $532m retail offer with a 75% participation rate. The $128m retail shortfallcleared at $2.90. A win for retail by 5c.

Bluescope Steel, Nov 2011: $600m 4-for-5 at 40c. $338m insto offer had 83% take up with 175m share shortfall clearing at 40c offer price. The $260m retail offer had a 48% take-up. The large shortfall cleared at 40c, so no winner.

Super Retail Group, Oct 2011: $334m 9-for-19 at $5.34. $282m insto offer only 47% subscribed and 28m shortfall failed to clear at offer price. $50m retail offer had 46% take-up and retail shortfall of 4.3m shares cleared at $5.38, a premium of 4c, so win for retail by 4c.

Goodman Fielder, Sep 2011: $259m 5-for-12 at 45c. $190m insto offer 95% taken up and 30m share shortfall cleared at 50c. $69m retail offer was 60% taken up and 60.6m retail shortfall cleared at 50c, so no winner.

Origin Energy, March 2011: $2.3b 1-for-5 at $13. $1.13b insto offer with 95% take-up as shortfall cleared at $2. $1.17b retail offer with 79% take-up as retail shortfall cleared at $2.80, so a win for retail by 80c.

All up, that's a pretty fair system with 6 wins for retail, 5 for the instos and 4 draws. Let's wait to see what happens with Westpac in the coming days.

Ka-Ching! puts the pokies industry under pressure

After 7.30's fascinating story about Peter Garrett trying to recant his interview with the Ka-Ching! documentary team, it was great to see what the ABC finally put to air last month.

It was interesting to see how few Labor and Liberal politicians responded to Ka-ching! Pokie Nation, whilst there were plenty of Greens who weighed in.

The doco certainly pulled no punches and turned the focus directly onto the evils of the addictive machines themselves, as opposed to the people and institutions who profit from them.

It is good to see the Municipal Association of Victoria getting on board the anti-pokies campaign and that the Fairfax press gave a good run to the recent Maurice Blackburn-backed Supreme Court action against the industry.

Finally, check out this 30 second anti-pokies ad made by Paul Bendat a few years ago featuring our daughter Alice, who was 6 at the time:



Paula commits to help fight the scourge of domestic violence

From now on, each Mayne Report "bumper edition" will include an item on domestic violence.

We attended a fabulous fundraiser at the Manningham Civic Centre last Friday night put on by local solicitor Hina Pasha.

Phil Cleary did a terrific job as MC and it was great to see well known businesses such as real estate firm Fletchers, Aussie Home Loans and Leader Newspapers all getting behind the evening which was a sell-out with more than 300 attending.

The silent auction raised $6000 for the Eastern Domestic Violence Service, which Paula (the better half) has chaired for the past two years.

Paula also has a new job managing the legal practice at Intouch, a specialist state-wide provider of services to victims of domestic violence in CALD communities.

She's really motivated to make a difference in this space and delighted to see the increased attention on the issue, which has been swept under the carpet for far too long.

Donate to help keep us going

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Tales from the talkback circuit: Global Integrity Summit, Walkleys and planning

Well done to the team at Griffith University in Queensland for pulling off a most interesting Global Integrity Summit last month.

From the two day program, there was a tonne of lively discussion and debate.

Fighting corruption, distorted rent-seeking and the misallocation of resources is a global challenge, even for the West.

It was nice to share a breakfast in Brisbane with Human Rights Commissioner Prof Gillian Triggs, who seemed in good spirits with Malcolm Turnbull having changed the political conversation completely.

In other talk circuit action, stand by for the 2015 Walkley Awards next month where I'll be back on the Crown Casino stage with the political editor of The Sunday Telegraph for the first time since this happened. More to come...

There's also a big planning speech - the Kemsley Oration - coming up on November 30.

Meanwhile, click here to read feedback after some speeches and feel free to reply by email if you fancy an engagement or contact the crew at ICMI.

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From the member edition archive

If you're a relatively new Mayne Report reader, here are links to some of the more interesting email editions sent out over the past seven years.

2015

Global Integrity Summit, Macquarie, pokies, council update, AGM season and family news
October 12, 2015

Battling Slaters, a Stokes shocker, council, CBA litigation, ASA conference and RACV reforms
April 30, 2015

Tenth anniversary of Crikey sale, Aristocrat AGM, council transparency and then some
March 9, 2015

2014

End of year bumper edition
Monday, December 22, 2014

Special edition on the Victorian election result
Sunday, November 30, 2014

Vic election, Herald Sun, Rupert votes, Tex, Xenophon and much morey
Sunday, November 23, 2014

Rupert AGMs, Cabcharge, Costello, Bolt, Ten and Victorian election
Sunday, November 16, 2014

CBA tilt, LA visit, Rupert AGMs, Cabcharge and state election
Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Cabcharge, donations for Rupert visit and governance reforms at City of Melbourne
Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Tilts, Fairfax, CBA, Brickworks, Albert Park, ASX, Woolies, pokies and Crown
Friday, September 20, 2014

We're back: inside a post-ASA election season blitz
Monday, September 15, 2014

2013

Capital raisings, Ansell, IAG, Packer, pokies, Rich List, City of Melbourne and ASA update
Monday, December 23, 2013

Franking robbery, East West trust breach, BHP bonuses, John Gay and plenty more
Sunday, August 25, 2013

ASA policy paper, Kevin Andrews on the pokies, Senate preferences and much more
August 19, 2013

ASA, Billabong, Westfield, Newcrest, Shorten, Turnbull, pokies and then some
Monday, July 22, 2013

Rudd v Gillard, referendum, Labor sleaze, Clive Palmer, ASA, City of Melbourne and plenty more
Monday, June 24, 2013

2012

Backing Rudd, Lachlan, Bob Brown media debate, Manningham governance, Gunns and St Kilda AGM
Monday, February 20, 2012

The OZ goes mad, Murdoch piracy, AFR, pokies double rate, Gina, council super, BoQ rip-off and power speech
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

2011

Murdoch special, media inquiry, pokies, Manningham, Zara, secretive Shortenite crs and Vodafone take-down
Thursday, September 15, 2011

Elected to ASA board, pokies, Rio, Santos, RHG, Hartigan, Manningham, capital raisings and Rich List
Thursday, May 19, 2011

2010

Paperlinx, Packer, Murdoch, Manningham, pokies, Rich ex wives, foreign takeovers and much more
Saturday, October 23, 2010

DJs, women on boards, ex Lib goes no pokies, preferences, Pratt-Shorten, Labor's debt and Manningham council audio
August 3, 2010

Director rankings, Rio, Westfield, MAP, Manningham, Paatsch, state election, rich list, pokies and much more
June 9, 2010

Political donations, Stokes, Westfield tower, Richard Colless, Manningham nursing home, state debt, Rich List and Grand Prix
February 23, 2010

2009

Seven AGM, crazy Perth visit, Fairfax, Telstra, Transfield, capital raisings and much more
November 9, 2009

News Corp AGM, Packer, Fairfax, James Strong, Woolies, Eastern Golf, Kohler-Gatto and much more
October 20, 2009

Bad Bendigo, Mark Day, Manningham, pokies, NAB, Asciano, Rich List, Paladin and hostile EGMs
September 15, 2009

Macquarie AGM, Melbourne's decline, Asciano EGM, capital raisings, Goyder's pokies and AGM diary
July 28, 2009

2008 as the GFC hit and before we got overloaded at Manningham

71% backing at Centro, $11bn backing at BHP and huge Qantas protest
November 28, 2008

Combank's $700m ABC Learning debacle
November 13, 2008

Computershare AGM, Seven wash-up, audio highlights and ABC Learning chair under pump at Lend Lease
November 11, 2008

Toll board skewered over $55m executive rort
October 30, 2008

Transurban shareholder revolution - chairman almost defeated
October 28, 2008

A huuuuge day for Australian corporate governance
October 22, 2008

Rupert's accountability dodge, Macquarie's Italian hit, Babcock funds revamp, pokieact.org and rich lists.
October 20, 2008

BHP and Woolies tilts, AFIC push on Stan Wallis, ASX-Kohler yarn and new Rich Listers
September 26, 2008

Risk Metrics nails Macquarie and Babcock
September 18, 2008

Macquarie videos, Stokes raid, new board tilt, Oz Minerals, share trading and much more
July 25, 2008

Hegarty Payout rolled, history is made
July 18, 2008

Great debate at the Babcock AGM
May 30, 2008

Our liveliest edition yet
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Burrows quits, Rupert, donations, long-serving directors and much more
January 31, 2008

Markets tumble, Rupert book deal, Centro, Rich List, Xenophon, AFR tips and our buying spree
January 17, 2008

2007

Fortescue Metals AGM: time for Twiggy and FMG to grow up
Sunday, November 8, 2007, 10.30pm

How $5bn worth of votes backed us against Rupert's dodgy gerrymander
Saturday, 20 October, 2007, 7.20am

Mayne family news

With footy season out of the way, we've now had two games of U15 girls cricket with both Laura and Alice in the team and dad as the coach. Sadly, we lost by 1 run last night just as the rain set in!

Laura is wrapping up year 8 and turned 14 in August. She's now drawing level with mum at about 5 foot 9 and even managed a two hour stretch on the RRR Party Show recently, finishing at 2am on a Sunday morning.




We're paying for 3 nights a week of swimming squad for all the kids but not managing to turn up at that rate given everything else that is going on.

Alice, 12, is back up for another season of Little Aths and "Lucky Phil", 11, is going around again for another season of basketball with dad as team manager after being dobbed in by mum.

So if you want to know why the Crikey and AGM output has been a little light on of late, it's because "Mr Dad" has stepped up the pace at home and with the kids in our thoroughly modern family.

And speaking of families, Paula's fabulous artist sister Patricia Piccinini has just returned from an incredible show in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which achieved front page newspaper coverage, along with prime time television reports.

An astonishing 9000 people went through the doors on the opening day (see below), looking in wonderment at the dozens of incredible creations Patricia has made over the years.

Australian artists don't often capture the imagination of another country, but the sister-in-law was seriously big news in Brazil in October.





That's all for now.

Do ya best, Stephen Mayne

* The Mayne Report is an email newsletter and website which promotes transparency and good governance in the corporate, political and media worlds. It is published by Stephen Mayne, the founder of Crikey.com, shareholder advocate and City of Melbourne councillor. To unsubscribe from this email list, click here.