Call for gender quotas amid ‘dire’ lack of women CEOs

The woman who missed out on the top job at AGL Australia after the failed demerger of the energy giant says quotas may be needed to correct the ‘dire’ lack of women at the top.

The woman who missed out on the top job at AGL Australia after the failed demerger of the energy giant says quotas may be needed to correct the “dire” lack of female CEOs.

Christine Corbett, who was briefly anointed chief executive of the newly created AGL Australia earlier this year, said if her role had gone ahead she would have been the only new female CEO appointed to a top 100 company in Australia.

“If you had asked me 10 years ago, do I think quotas for female executives are necessary I would have said no,” said Ms Corbett, who addressed the QUT Business Leaders Forum in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“You know, I probably was of the school that believed it was on merit. But down the track 10 years that hasn’t really changed the dial.

“So whether it’s having targets or whether it’s having quotas, and there’s probably a gray line between the two, I think we need to be deliberate about it.”

AGL Energy in May ditched plans to split the company into a retail arm called AGL Australia, to be headed by Ms Corbett, and Accel Energy, a power producer, caving in to opposition from billionaire climate activist and top shareholder Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Former AGL boss Christine Corbett, Hilton Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ms Corbett said Mr Cannon-Brookes was opposed to the demerger because he wanted to fast-track decarbonisation while AGL management wanted a more staged approach.

Ms Corbett, who grew up in Brisbane and attended St Rita’s College, said one way to ensure more women reached the top was to include them on more promotion short lists.

“When companies are putting together short lists they have to dig deeper, and you need to make sure that your shortlist has representation,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean you’re hiring a female. It means you actually provide opportunities for women to shine.

“At the moment, it is quite dire to be honest. Last year, there were 23 new CEO appointments of which only one was female.”

Ms Corbett said that following her resignation from AGL she was looking for other job opportunities, preferably as a CEO.

“It certainly made me both realize that I loved being a CEO - facing the investor market, building the team, getting the strategies together and leading a group of really committed individuals,” said Ms Corbett, who was a senior executive at Australia Post before joining AGL as chief customer officer in 2019.

“That’s what I want to do.”

She said she had made the practical decision to resign from AGL after she effectively became chief executive of a company that did not exist.