4 questions lodged at 2025 ANZ hybrid AGM

Q1. Thank you for disclosing the proxy position early, both to the ASX and at this meeting, which allows for a more fully informed debate. Which of the proxy advisers recommended against the board's recommendation on both remuneration matters and the shareholder resolutions where minority opposition peaked at 32% on the remuneration report and 22.7% on resolution 7, related to financing deforestation? Please don't say proxy adviser recommendations are confidential. It is standard for a chair to summarise the recommendations and rationale where relevant and this is not a request to publish the actual proxy adviser reports?

Answer: Waited 3.5 hours for this first question to be asked at ANZ. Absolutely hopeless privacy duck and weave from chair Paul O'Sullivan. He wouldn't even say what ASA recommended when its advice is freely available online. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q2. We seem to have a very diverse board and senior management team in terms of having offshore experience. Dual citizens can't serve in the Australian Parliament. Do any of our regulators, such as APRA, ASIC and the RBA, have a view as to whether a major Australian financial institution like ANZ can and should be led by non-citizens or dual citizens?

Answer: First time have ever asked what was effectively a question “is there a quota on foreign leadership numbers?” It seems not, at ANZ. Under the law, ASX-listed companies must have at least 3 Australian resident directors but chair Paul O'Sullivan stressed the main criteria for regulators is a "fit and proper" test plus relevant skills, not citizenship. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. Is the chair Paul O'Sullivan intending to serve a full 3 year term and retire as chair after the 2028 AGM? Does the chair believe the next chair is currently serving on the board, have we retained a recruitment firm to assist with the chair succession process and will the search extend to individuals not currently serving on the board. Westpac chair Steven Gregg told its AGM last week that Westpac has the most banking experience on its board out of the Big 4 banks. Does our chair agree with that assessment and where does he think ANZ currently sits in the rankings on that metric?

Answer: It was strange to leave this resolution to the very end after all other issues and resolutions had been debated to death. They have a head hunter for recruiting new directors but it wasn't clear if they will be running this process. External candidates will be considered. Paul O'Sullivan didn't wait to be invited to speak by acting chair Christine Reilly and it was odd how his commentary made it sound like he wouldn't be involved much in the process. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q4. How many of ANZ's circa 450,000 shareholders voted in favour of chair Paul O'Sullivan's re-election by proxy any how many voted against? If even gambling company BETR and Myer can voluntarily produce this sort of proxy voting data at their recent AGMs, why can't ANZ? Computershare runs our share register and they publish the headcount data in the poll results after its own AGM, so will we request the same data from Computershare and include the head count data when releasing the poll results to the ASX later today? You've got the data, so please let the sun shine in on the sad fact that less than 3% of your shareholders will participate in voting at today's AGM.

Answer: Acting ANZ chair Christine Reilly reads a scripted “no” response to this detailed request for head count voting data. Fancy an online gambling company like BETR showing up ANZ when it comes to AGM process, transparency and disclosure. Just hopeless.
Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

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