NRMA thrives on tough love

It was time for another dose of tough love as Mr Nicholas Whitlam chose yesterday to portray relationships within the NRMA.

An Anthony Mundine bout, the fight to rescue South Sydney, a botched Barry White concert ... none can really compare to the short-fused passion of an NRMA annual meeting.

After an outbreak of peace and goodwill during the Olympics it was almost a relief to see Sydney regain its former status of the city of stoush. An elderly NRMA shareholder, Mr John Ryan, admitted he was itching for a fight at the first annual meeting since demutualisation of NRMA Insurance Group Limited.

"I'm hoping that there will be a stoush," he declared. "All this mob wants to do is to make money of [the NRMA]. Him and his mates."

"Him" was a reference to the chairman, Mr Whitlam. At issue, was, well, a whole series of issues. These included, as ever, Mr Whitlam himself, his "divisive" leadership style, continuing "cash for comment" payments by the NRMA, John Laws's fees and options to NRMA Insurance directors, including the chief executive, Mr Eric Dodds. And, as it transpired, for one shareholder, the non-return of two letters addressed to Mr Dodds.

Inside the Convention Centre auditorium the 11 directors of NRMA Insurance were gathered. Shareholders arrived to find the directors bathed in an almost lurid blue light akin to that used in Sydney's more fashionable cocktail lounges. Theatre like this surely demands such theatrical touches. Ms Anne Keating, with whom Mr Whitlam has clashed recently, was seated at a discreet distance from the chairman.

Mr Whitlam was jeered right from the beginning of proceedings when the microphone didn't work. But the chairman was in a conciliatory, yet realistic, mood when the moment came for him to deliver his address to the shareholders, among them shareholder agitators Mr Jack Tilburn and his Generation X equivalent, Mr Stephen Mayne.

"Every one of us is a new shareholder in NRMA Insurance Group Limited," Mr Whitlam said. "Our insurance group has, I think, a special relationship with most of the shareholders. That's because most of us also have been, and remain, members of NRMA Limited, the motoring association ..."

"The relationship, therefore, is less detached, more familiar. And, like all families, we demonstrate a bit of tough love sometimes."

Before the meeting began Mr Mayne was distributing a flyer to shareholders as they entered the auditorium. It described Mr Whitlam as "overpaid" and "too divisive" a leader for a listed NRMA. Because of factors such as his ongoing feud with Ms Keating over matters such as travel and entertainment expenses, the NRMA, Mr Mayne's flyer stated, would be "better off without Nick Whitlam". Tough love indeed.

Copyright © 2022 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

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