Shareholders hit out at Qantas AGM

Qantas shareholders denied CEO exit Geoff Dixon a dignified exit, after eight years at the controls of the Australian airline. Over 40 per cent of voted against his $12-million salary and the pay packets for his senior executive team, while ejecting him from the top seat of the company.

The company's board-picked director Barbara Ward also faced a backlash after investors spoke of concerns about her links to the failed Allco Finance Group, two-fifths of them disapproving her election to the airline's board. Australian media said that the vote marked one of the biggest against a director for a top 100 company.

Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford was reported to have spent most of the annual meeting in Brisbane attempting to reassure shareholders that the senior executives' pay was justified.

Prior to the meeting, governance adviser RiskMetrics had urged a vote against the executive pay deal, on account of Dixon's "excessive" cash-based payments, as its analysis showed that Qantas' senior executives would still get large cash payments even if the airline's performance dips.

Chairman Clifford said that senior executives, including new boss Alan Joyce, had "significant portions" of their pay at risk, even as Qantas had little option but to pay market rates to attract and retain talent. To that argument, a shareholder countered that Toyota's chief executive was paid less than $1 million last year, and that "paying top dollar for top talent is load of baloney".

Other shareholders decried Dixon's attempt to cap annual wage hikes at three per cent, while simultaneously executives got large pay rises, calling it a "slap in the face" for workers.