General business questions
I'm a proxy for Stephen Mayne who would like to have attended this AGM virtually from Melbourne using his Felix (A TPG brand) internet connection but you've banned your 23,000 shareholders from online participation in today's meeting. We are a $9.44 billion company which offers internet services. On what grounds do we ban internet access to our own AGM and will you undertake to offer shareholders a proper hybrid AGM, like our competitors such as Telstra, AGL and Helia all do. Even one of our biggest shareholders, Hutchison Telecommunications, is offering a hybrid AGM at 10am tomorrow so why aren't we doing the same?
What is the TPG Telecom position on making political donations and did we make any related to the current Federal election, including subscription payments or attendance at conferences and fundraising events? What do we think of the Rio Tinto and BHP policies of strictly banning all political donations, in contrast to the likes of Woodside Energy, Santos and the Soul Pattinson group which have each donated more than $1 million of shareholder funds to political parties over the past 15 years?
I noticed that our long serving director Robert Millner was quoted on the front page of The Australian yesterday (see picture via Twitter) attacking the Liberal Party for running an incompetent campaign and threatening to withhold any future political donations he might make to the party. Given that Mr Millner also also controls the ASX listed coal mining company New Hope, is he risking dragging our company into a potential consumer boycott by progressive voters, including wealthy supporters of teal independent candidates. Does the board have any form of code of conduct or protocol about the overt political activities of individual directors because this is not a good look and certainly not in the interests of shareholders, particularly after the Liberal Party has just suffered a thumping defeat.
Paula Dwyer and Helen Nugent re-election questions
Could Paula Dwyer and Helen Nugent please outline their hybrid AGM records at the public company boards they've served on over the past 3 years since hybrids became best practice following the COVID pandemic. Will they undertake to support a move to a hybrid AGM next year if it comes down to a contested vote inside the board room?
Item 4: Canning Fok re-election
As the chair of our company, could Mr Fok please explain why our company switched from a virtual AGM in 2022 to a physical only AGM for the past 3 years. Was Mr Millner influential on this decision given his record of refusing to offer shareholders hybrid AGMs at other public companies he controls, such as Brickworks, Soul Pattinson and New Hope? If Mr Mayne offers not to run for our board at next year's AGM in exchange for TPG committing to hybrid AGMs going forward, would Mr Fok be open to reaching such an agreement?
Item 7: LTI grant
Thank you for publishing full webcast archives and transcripts of recent AGMs on your website. Apart from offering a proper hybrid meeting, the only other additional governance ask is as follows: When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, including the remuneration items such as this LTI grant , please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions and insight into the chronically low retail shareholder participation rate. The likes of Qantas, ASX, Suncorp, Tabcorp and even the world's biggest share registry provider Computershare have all voluntarily provided this data during the current AGM season. You've got the data, so why not let the sun shine in?
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