Qantas directors facing stern judgment day over ‘corporate governance failures’

A proxy advisory firm has urged Telstra shareholders not to re-elect director Maxine Brenner because of her performance on the board of Qantas.

ISS said it was important to hold directors to account for failures of corporate governance, while noting that Qantas chairman Richard Goyder was not up for re-election. Picture: James D. Morgan/Getty Images.

A powerful proxy advisory firm has recommended against the re-election of Maxine Brenner to the Telstra board, on the basis of concerns about her performance at Qantas.

Institutional Shareholder Services which provides voting advice to major investors ahead of company AGMs, had no issues with three other directors up for re-election at Telstra.

But in regards to Ms Brenner, the ISS report said there were “material failures of governance, board and risk oversight and fiduciary duties” in her 10-years on the Qantas board.

The report pointed to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission legal action, the High Court ruling on the illegal firing of 1700 workers during the pandemic and “problematic pay practices”.

Maxine Brenner is on the board of Telstra as well as Qantas, Woolworths and Origin.

“(Ms Brenner) has been on the board of Qantas for 10 years and is a member of the remuneration committee,” the report said.

Her directorship of Woolworths where Ms Brenner was chair of the remuneration committee was also considered cause of concern due to “potential problematic pay practices”.

Ms Brenner is not up for re-election to the Qantas board this year but the ISS advice does not bode well for the directors who are, including Todd Sampson and Belinda Hutchinson.

ISS Australia and New Zealand managing director of research Vasili Kolesnikoff said recommendations for the Qantas AGM next month would be released shortly.

He said it was important to hold directors to account for failures of corporate governance, while noting that chairman Richard Goyder was not up for re-election.

In a further headache for Qantas, an information technology failure has been blamed for a major disruption to freight services, leaving thousands of goods in limbo and resulting in the loss of a significant amount of produce.

Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane freight depots were worst affected by the issues, which meant cargo was unable to be accurately identified or sorted for at least two days.

It was expected to be another week before the backlog of freight was cleared with Qantas prioritising perishable items and goods such as pharmaceuticals.

International Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of Australia CEO Scott Carson said there were instances where perishable freight had been spoiled or deteriorated to a level where there had been “some commercial loss”.

“We understand Qantas will have a process where parties that have had losses, can make a claim,” Mr Carson said.

“I wouldn’t be able to say how much those claims might amount to but I wouldn’t think it’s going to be minimal.”

Qantas Freight terminal at Sydney Airport. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

He said Qantas was working closely with IFCBAA and others in the industry to resolve the issues but there did not appear to be any quick fix to the problem.

In 40-years working in logistics, Mr Carson said he had not experienced disruption of this extent.

“I have seen issues happen, not so much IT related but just in terms of physical capacity and missing of deadlines and flights particularly on Fridays, but not something of this magnitude and length of time,” he said.

Despite the failure, IFCBAA was discouraging the industry from publicly abusing Qantas, saying it was not helpful.

“Having said that we’re certainly pushing that engagement with them every day to get updates for our members,” Mr Carson said.

“We do need to see this resolved very soon and we need Qantas to throw every resource it’s got at it, to get the situation rectified and the backlog cleared.”

A message to freight customers from Qantas said they expected to clear 75 per cent of the freight in their terminals within the next 24-hours.

“We’re more than halfway through rebooking any freight with missed connections onto new Qantas services,” said the message.

“As we’re waiving any storage fees during this time, there may be delays with invoicing as we ensure our invoices accurately reflect your shipment details.”

Originally published as Qantas directors facing stern judgment day over ‘corporate governance failures’