6 questions lodged at 2024 Auswide Bank hybrid AGM

Q1. Thank you for disclosing the proxy position to the ASX along with the formal addresses at 9.26am, 94 minutes before the meeting started. What caused the 26.5% proxy protest vote against the re-election of chair Sandra Birkensleigh? Which of the proxy advisers issued reports ahead of today's AGM and did any recommend voting against Sandra. If so, what reasons did they give?

Answer: The chair had no idea but speculated it was due to the poor profit and dividend performance over the previous 12 months. There were no proxy adviser recommendations but an online shareholder later lobbed a question saying there concerns had been communicated with the bank. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q2. Why was there a 21.7% proxy protest vote against Mr Murdoch's re-election?

Answer: The chair again wasn't sure. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. There was only a 6% proxy protest vote against Ms Kohonen's re-election so well done for receiving such strong support. What was the differentiating factor that saw material protest votes on the previous two resolutions but not this item?

Answer: The chair and the other directors said they would like to find out as well. It was a shame the directors up for election didn't speak to the resolution.

Q4. When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, including this remuneration report item, could you please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement? This will be a good warm up for the December 2 scheme meeting and will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on our remuneration practices along with insight into the chronically low retail shareholder participation rate. Others have already blazed the trail as this was a voluntary disclosure initiative adopted by the likes of Qantas, ASX, Metcash, Suncorp, Tabcorp and our own share registry provider Computershare, so far this AGM season. You've got the data, so why not let the sun shine in?

Answer: The chair took a "we follow the law and do nothing more" position after failing to read the full question. This should have been done by someone other than the chair. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q5. How big are the success fees that will be provided to the investment banking advisers on this Mystate merger and how will we determine which of our directors will serve on the combined board?

Answer: The chair said the board seats were detailed in the scheme book and she couldn't talk about success fees. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q6. At 8.05am this morning, The AFR published an exclusive story which began as follows:

"Westpac would pay more than $100 million under a potential new bank levy proposed by Treasury to keep branches open in the bush, under a redistribution system enabling banks to trade regional banking service credits similar to a carbon trading scheme. Industry participants warned that a bank levy to promote services in the bush would penalise emerging digital-focused disrupters such as Macquarie Bank by imposing higher costs and making it harder to compete aggressively against the four largest lenders on home loans."

What does our CEO think about this proposal and would we be a winner or a loser from this initiative?

Answer: The chair said they were not up with what appeared in the paper that morning. It was The AFR's website. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

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