QANTAS AGM:
A current Qantas board member has made a key decision in a bid to retain his position at what is expected to be a heated annual general meeting of the company now little more than a week away.
All Qantas directors – including board chair Richard Goyder who has already said he would step down, but not until late next year – are expected to come under fire at the 3 November AGM in Melbourne.
Shareholders are expected to attempt to remove directors who served during the period in which controversial ex-CEO Alan Joyce ran the airline and made a series of decisions that have damaged its reputation and share value.
They include what the High Court of Australia has found to be the illegal sacking of workers during the COVID pandemic, legal action against the airline by consumer watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after the alleged sale of tickets for thousands of already cancelled flights, as well as the bungled administration of customers’ COVID-period flight credits, a rise in flight cancellation rates, and complaints about a fall in service quality.
But Qantas director since 2015, advertising guru and TV personality Todd Sampson, said he was now more confident of retaining his board seat after making a key tactical decision in the lead-up to the AGM.
“I’ve thought very long and hard about the coming AGM in the wake of the nosedive in Qantas’s reputation and the series of corporate and operational mistakes that have been made in the period I have been a serving as a director,” Mr Sampson told The Bug.
“I am well aware that as a director I have a fiduciary duty to shareholders, but I also recognise that the share price has taken a hit.
“I also have a duty to Qantas customers and any objective observer – including shareholders voting on board positions at the AGM – would rightly consider that I and my fellow directors totally failed in our jobs by allowing Alan Joyce to do what he did.
“So I have come to the only conclusion possible and I’ll be wearing a camouflage t-shirt to the 3 November meeting. (main picture)
“I reckon it will help make me almost if not entirely undetectable to shareholders who should then leave me alone.
“As my friend and fellow advertising guru and ABC TV’s Gruen panellist Russel Howcroft described my decision: ‘Brilliant! Yeah?’
“Even if shareholders can still see me I think they’ll still also see that the company would be the biggest loser if it lost my singular talent from its board of directors,” he said.
When asked to identify his “singular talent” Mr Sampson replied: “I wear t-shirts.”
Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!
The Bug Online 