Proxy advisor urges vote against Telstra director over links to Qantas
Telstra’s investors should vote against the re-election of Maxine Brenner to the telecommunication group’s board because of “material failures” in her oversight at Qantas, an influential proxy advisory firm has told clients.
In the first sign that the fallout from the airline’s recent legal and governance issues is spreading, Institutional Shareholder Services recommended a vote against Ms Brenner at Telstra’s annual meeting this month. Ms Brenner is also a director at Woolworths and Origin Energy.
Maxine Brenner at the last Qantas annual meeting with former chief executive Alan Joyce and chairman Richard Goyder. Louie Douvis
The advisory’s report to shareholders, authored by its local head of research Vas Kolesnikoff, notes there have been “material failures of governance, board and risk oversight and fiduciary duties” at Qantas, where she has been a director since August 2013. In particular, ISS notes legal action launched by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over the airline selling tickets on cancelled flights, the High Court ruling on the illegal firing of 1,700 workers during the pandemic and problematic pay practices.
Qantas chairman Richard Goyder defended the illegal sackings at a Senate inquiry hearing last week, suggesting the airline had “sound commercial” reasons to make its ground staff redundant during the pandemic.
“[Ms Brenner] has been on the board of Qantas for 10 years and is a member of the remuneration committee,” the ISS report reads, adding that there were “potential problematic pay practices and concerns for appropriate accountability regarding fatalities at Woolworths, where [Ms Brenner] is chair of the remuneration committee.”
ISS did not object to Ms Brenner’s reelection at
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