Australian Wool Innovation under fire over board-stacking, ‘man-in-the-mirror’ scandal
AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation chairman Wal Merriman controls the lion’s share of woolgrower votes at board elections, an explosive Senates estimates committee hearing has been told.
AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation chairman Wal Merriman controls the lion’s share of woolgrower votes at board elections, an explosive Senates estimates committee hearing has been told.
Fronting the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee in Canberra today, AWI admitted that Mr Merriman also received “progressive results” of the elections during the voting period before casting his ballots.
The revelation comes amid scrutiny over allegations of board stacking, bullying and intimidation at AWI.
Under scrutiny from Nationals Senator Barry O’Sullivan, AWI company secretary Jim Story admitted a progressive count of the ballots during board elections was shared with the chairman as part of “normal corporate practice”.
“I can guarantee this is not normal corporate practice,” Senator O’Sullivan said.
It later revealed Mr Merriman controlled “about 45,000” of the 90,000 woolgrower votes cast at the board elections. He later said he was “way off” and controlled 20,000 of the 90,000 votes cast at the 2015 board election. Of 180,000 votes cast in 2013, Mr Merriman controlled about 30,000 votes.
“The shareholders say ‘We want you to get a good, stable vote’ — that’s why they give me the votes,” Mr Merriman said.
“I’ve got to tell you, us in the political world, if you’ve got 20,000 votes you are head and shoulders (above) … it is all over,” Senator O’Sullivan said.
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OPINION: WOOL AND INNOVATION, OR BULLYING AND INTIMIDATION?
JOYCE SILENT ON AWI CHAIRMAN WAL MERRIMAN
F-BOMB IMPLODES ON WAL MERRIMAN
JOYCE QUIET ON AWI FOCUS GROUP ROW INVOLVING WAL MERRIMAN
MERRIMAN SORRY FOR MIRROR SCANDAL
THE ‘MAN-IN-THE-MIRROR’ SCANDAL
In a pre-prepared opening statement, Mr Merriman conceded AWI had “had a difficult few months, mostly caused by me” — referring to the “man-in-the-mirror” scandal and his behaviour toward an ABC journalist.
Mr Merriman has come under fire for secretly viewing a focus group of stud breeders, who use the genetic appraisal MerinoSelect, through a one-way mirror. Participants were assured anonymity and did not know Mr Merriman — who uses traditional “objective” methods — would be observing.
Mr Merriman acknowledged AWI and its consultants — market research company Axiom — “did not meet best practice or the sensibilities of woolgrowers” in those focus groups conducted in Sydney on June 15.
“Never before have meetings been held in a room with a one-way mirror,” Mr Merriman said.
“This was all very strange to me when I went and observed the process ... I should have said ‘nup, this is not the way we do things’.”
AWI has since had an investigation into the incident, the report of which was tabled at the estimates hearing, and vowed it will not happen again.
Senators were told Mr Merriman sat in on the first of four focus groups that day. Mr Merriman said several woolgrowers had raised concerns ahead of the focus session — where participants were divided into groups according to their preferred methods — and he agreed to “check it out”.
Mr Merriman said in previous AWI “meetings”, participants for and against the use of genetics were in a room together with a facilitator because “they are the warring tribes”.
“I was quite shocked to see a deviation from that,” he said, claiming he wanted to sit with the focus group but was directed to sit behind the mirror.
AWI chief executive Stuart McCullough placed the blame on Axiom, which had admitted it did not open the meeting correctly and tell participants about the mirror or who was observing.
Mr McCullough said while one-way mirrors were common practice in the commercial world, they had never been used by AWI.
Mr Merriman denied that he had been told not to attend the focus group, arguing that as AWI chair, “I’m allowed to go to meetings all over the country”.
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie questioned whether Mr Merriman understood the difference between a meeting and a focus group, which has codes and standards attached to it regarding anonymity and confidentiality.
“My understanding is there is a war going on ... and you’ve just allowed the member of one tribe in on the other,” Senator McKenzie said.
“One side feels absolutely maligned that you allowed the captain of the other team to listen to their most innermost thoughts.”
Mr Merriman said: “I’m not the captain of the other team — I only went to that meeting because that’s the day I was there.”
“He did not know the order of the teams showing up,” Mr McCullough added.
MERRIMAN APOLOGISES FOR FOUL LANGUAGE
Mr Merriman also apologised to “woolgrowers and anyone else offended” after he told an ABC reporter to “f--- off” and called him a “useless prick”.
Mr Merriman conceded he may have breached AWI’s code of practice for the language used but “I’ve already apologised for that”.
Mr Merriman said the journalist was told before the industry function in South Australia last week that neither he nor Mr McCullough would answer questions on the mirror scandal.
He said at the end of the night the journalist pushed through a crowd of people and “stuck a microphone in my face”.
“I think he was very rude and showed ill manners,” Mr Merriman told senators.
The journalist has rejected Mr Merriman’s assertions, saying he was told he could ask questions.
In his opening statement, Mr Merriman said he was “direct in the way I speak”: “I’m from the bush and I need a lot more polish to operate in these surroundings”.
Senator McKenzie asked Mr Merriman if his behaviour was damaging the standing of AWI.
“To an extent yes, but in our business we have a wonderful thing called freedom,” Mr Merriman replied.
“And the shareholders will have a vote in three weeks’ time.”
Mr Merriman, however, is not up for re-election.