Qantas board grilled over deportations, climate change and staff pay

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Qantas board grilled over deportations, climate change and staff pay

By Ruth Williams

Questions about asylum seekers, climate change risk and employee pay have dominated discussion at the Qantas AGM in Brisbane, where retiring chairman Leigh Clifford suggested shareholders concerned about immigration policies should raise their issues with politicians instead of the airline.

At his last annual shareholder meeting at the helm of the Qantas board, Mr Clifford on Friday talked up the "strong" fundamentals of Qantas' business, but pointed to a series of "mega trends" - including global shifts in demand for flights, climate change concerns, and cyber security - that the company would need to plan for in coming years and decades.

And, on behalf of the board, he urged investors to vote against a high-profile shareholder proposal that - citing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - called on the airline to review its approach to forced immigration deportations on its flights, and to adopt a "heightened due diligence" process for deportations.

It was Leigh Clifford's last AGM as Qantas chairman.

It was Leigh Clifford's last AGM as Qantas chairman.Credit: Attila Csaszar

Mr Clifford suggested the shareholders behind the move were using the company to pressure the federal government and opposition over immigration policies.

"We respect there are different views in the community," he said, but added that Qantas intervening in deportations would undermine the government and the processes of Australia's judicial system.

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, the not-for-profit that coordinated the asylum seeker resolution, called on other shareholders to support it, with executive director Brynn O'Brien warning Qantas had "unwittingly waded into dangerous territory" on the issue, placing in danger its brand as well as "vulnerable men, women and children".

Ms O'Brien foreshadowed action from global unions to oppose forced deportations by airlines due to the impact on front-line staff including "trauma suffered by workers".

The ACCR's move had been backed by figures including former Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs and prominent businesswoman Janet Holmes à Court. But it attracted minimal investor support, with a vote in favour of just 4.25 per cent.

'Glass half full'?

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Climate change and the promised payment of employee bonuses also featured heavily in questions from the floor, with Mr Clifford and chief executive Alan Joyce repeatedly asked about the company's move to delay paying staff their bonuses until new enterprise agreements were struck.

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The issue had "demoralised the whole staff", one speaker said. Mr Joyce said people "should be looking at the glass half full", saying more profitable companies, including big banks, had not elected to pay such bonuses at all.

Mr Joyce was also forced to emphatically quash rumours of an imminent announcement of 2500 redundancies.

Shareholders waved through the Qantas remuneration report and the election of most directors, but the re-election of audit committee member Maxine Brenner attracted a protest vote of more than 10 per cent after concerns flagged by at least one proxy advisor that she was overcommitted.

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