Shareholders at Westfield operator Scentre, the country’s largest shopping mall landlord, have delivered a first strike at their annual meeting against the company’s remuneration report, which awarded chief executive Elliott Rusanow almost $5.5 million for the 2023 year.

The bulk of that sum came in variable, performance-linked remuneration, both as cash and rights, with $1.8 million in fixed remuneration. His base pay was lifted to $2 million from January this year, while that of the chief financial officer and human resources boss also rose after the company benchmarked Scentre’s pay levels against other top ASX companies.