3 questions asked at 2024 Woolworths hybrid AGM
October 31, 2024
Below is the text of the 3 written questions submitted at the 2024 Woolworths hybrid AGM held on October 31, plus a summary of the answers and some video grabs via Twitter. The proxy votes were withheld until after the debate on each item. There was a 19% protest against Maxine Brenner and 30% support for the first of two contingent hostile shareholder resolutions on salmon farming practices.
Q1. When Endeavour Group was demerged in 2021, then Woolworths chair Gordon Cairns claimed we were maintaining a 14.6% stake to match Bruce Mathieson's shareholding and ensure long overdue poker machine reforms would be implemented. 3 years later we've sold out completely. Is that because we'd lost faith in Endeavour's efforts to mitigate the harm suffered by the gamblers who lose more than $1.5 billion a year on Endeavour's 12,500 poker machines? Did we dump our entire Endeavour shareholding because having any association with Australia's biggest poker machine operator is just too risky for our brand?
Answer: The chair Scott Perkins batted this away claiming the sale was driven by economics not ethics. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q2. Phil Chronican election question: Could the chair comment on whether he supports the principle that Woolworths should release its full year results before the deadline closes for candidates to nominate for the board at the AGM. If some disaster unfolds in the annual results, shareholders need time to arrange changes to the board at the following AGM. If the chair does support this principle, could he listen carefully to Phil Chronican's explanation as to why he doesn't apply this principle at NAB, which he chairs. Could Mr Chronican rule out lobbying his Woolworths colleague to move to a premature AGM, like the one he runs each year at NAB?
Answer: The chair Scott Perkins shielded Phil Chronican from explaining himself and said Woolworths would follow appropriate governance rules on AGM timing. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q3. The annual report claims we have 374,054 shareholders. However, less than 2% of them will vote today on all resolutions. Will you follow the lead of Qantas, Suncorp, Tabcorp and ASX over the past week and disclose the voting results like at a scheme meeting, where you also reveal how many shareholders voted for and against each item. This will make public Woolworths retail shareholder sentiment on issues like remuneration and salmon farming, rather than having the voting results dominated by US-based index funds and the likes of Australian Super. Such disclosure will also stimulate future retail shareholder participation. Chair, earlier in the meeting you said "sunlight is the best disinfectant". You have the data so please let the sun shine in on Australia's chronically low retail shareholder voting rates.
Answer: The chair Scott Perkins claimed holding back this data was "best practice", which is rubbish. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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