Revealed: Qld’s highest paid bosses

The CEOs of 78 of Queensland’s largest companies earned almost $100m between them in annual pay, with the top-earning boss pocketing almost $5m. SEE THE LIST

Clockwise from top left. Graham Turner from Flight Centre, Anthony Heraghty from Super Retail Group, Don Meij from Domino’s Pizza, Andrew Harding from Aurizon, Maxine Horne from Vita Group and Steve Johnston from Suncorp.

The 10 highest-paid CEOs at Queensland-based companies listed on the ASX earned more than $35m between them over the past financial year.

Nine of them pocketed more than $3m for the year.

Aurizon boss Andrew Harding, Suncorp’s Steve Johnston and Novonix’s Chris Burns emerged as the top earners, based on the most recently filed company annual reports.

The generous rewards reflect continuing growth in executive pay scales despite the national economy being battered by Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.

The latest company annual reports reveal that the CEOs at 78 of the state’s largest ASX-listed companies together had total remuneration of $98m.

Mr Harding, whose company hauls coal along its extensive rail network, topped the best paid ranking with total remuneration of $4.94m, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year while Mr Johnston’s total remuneration was $4.24m, a 28 per cent increase.

Mr Burns, who heads lithium battery material supplier Novonix, received only $365,560 in cash salary but his total remuneration was boosted by $2.9m in stock options and performance rights.

His total remuneration was $3.58m, up 40 per cent on the previous year.

Vincent English, the head of the cloud networking company Megaport, received a whopping 154 per cent increase in total remuneration to $3.54m, according to the remuneration of key management personnel table in the company’s latest annual report.

Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston.

Executive recruitment specialist Lawson Delaney Group managing director Guy Sigston said there was continuing strong growth in CEO remuneration at all levels and in all sectors. 

Mr Sigston said the impact of Covid-19 on businesses had increased the need for quality leadership, with CEOs given a stronger mandate to lead more than anytime in the past decade.

Leadership qualities included being decisive, agile and adaptable.

“For most people, it’s the greatest leadership challenge or responsibility they have been given in their careers,” Mr Sigston said.

The Courier-Mail drew CEO pay details from statutory remuneration and key management personnel tables in the most recent company annual reports. Actual realised pay may differ.

Aurizon said its annual report also identified “take home pay” for executives to make it clear to shareholders what actual remuneration was for the year.

On that basis, Harding’s total remuneration package was $3.9m comprising his fixed pay and performance-based incentive payments. In 2020 it was $3.7m.

An Aurizon spokesperson said that Mr Harding’s package was positioned below the median across a broad group of ASX100 companies.

Aurizon chief executive Andrew Harding.

Flight Centre boss Graham Turner received a relatively modest $646,875 in remuneration in 2021, a 7.8 per cent increase from the previous year.

While Mr Turner’s large personal stake in the travel company he founded four decades ago meant in good times he received generous dividend payments, Flight Centre has not awarded any dividend since 2019 because of losses associated with Covid-19.

Mr Turner said having such “skin in the game” could be considered a fairer reward system than traditional remuneration given it reflected a company’s performance. “It is fair enough for investors to reward executives for performance but it may be over the top in some instances,” said Mr Turner. “The problem is there does not seem to be much downside.”

A Suncorp spokesperson said the board determined executive remuneration based on experience and market conditions with performance measured against clearly defined targets. The spokesperson said Suncorp’s strong financial result this year, which saw a 42 per cent jump in earnings, was delivered against a challenging external backdrop of Covid-19 and the la Nina weather pattern.