7 questions lodged at 2026 Webjet (WJL) hybrid AGM
August 27, 2026
Below is the text of the 7 written questions submitted at the dramatic 1 hour Webjet (WJL) hybrid AGM in Melbourne and via the Automic platform at 2pm on August 27, 2026. See notice of meeting detailing 6 resolutions. Mr and Mrs Burnes from 20% shareholder Helloworld nominated hostile and then later withdrew 5 days before the AGM. Market cap $155m on AGM day. The proxies were disclosed the night before showing biggest protest 9.3% against election of acting chair Gary Weiss, but then Helloworld went bang from the floor, voting its 20% stake against all resolutions, triggering a 32.5% rem strike and reducing new chair Gary Weiss down to a mandate of just 61.5%.
Q1. After we were demerged from WebBeds, our board comprised chair Don Clarke, CEO Katrina Barry, Shelley Beasley, the 2 new independent directors who joined as part of the demerger, Brad Holman & Ellie Comerford, & fellow independent John Boris who joined in July 2025. So far this year, our chair & CEO have gone & the rest of the directors have agreed to let the busiest man in corporate Australia, Gary Weiss, come on as acting chair. Was Gary's appointment unanimous & why did they agree to this?
Answer: Independent director Ellie Comerford (who was generally impressive in her responses at the meeting) was chairing the Gary Weiss election item and she just summarised what had happened without saying why? My guess is that both BGH and Helloworld agreed that Gary Weiss would be a better option than stand-offish former chair Don Clarke, so the independent directors just rolled over and allowed it to happen. That said, Helloworld still voted against all resolutions from the floor of the AGM. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q2. Could acting chair Gary Weiss please explain how his Webjet takeover collaboration with private equity bidder Ben Gray started and how it works when they are competitors in the Queensland theme park market? Did the ACCC sign off on the chair of Dreamworld's parent company attempting to do travel industry joint takeover deals with the owner of Village Roadshow, the only other theme park operator on the Gold Coast? Was the ACCC even informed?
Answer: Acting chair Gary Weiss said I'd misunderstood the nature of the arrangement which was simply a "vote together" agreement which fell away once he joined the board, presumably with BGH's endorsement. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q3. How much have we paid so far to our former CEO Katrina Barry under the consultancy arrangement which started on June 1 this year. Who is she reporting to? The CEO or the board? And could the new CEO summarise how her engagement with her predecessor is progressing so far? What sort of work is she being asked to do?
Answer: Independent director Ellie Comerford stepped up to take this one and said Katrina reports to the board and hasn't been $1 as yet but the board just wanted access to her for any ongoing legal or takeover developments. Fair enough. The new CEO Nicole Sheffield said she'd had "minimal" engagement but there had been a formal handover meeting. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q4. Did Andrew and Cinzia Burnes know they were headed for defeat when they withdrew their board nominations last Friday and did we agree not to disclose the scale of the defeat, which might have been embarrassing for them? Did they have any material proxy voting support besides their own 20% stake and can you confirm they withdrew because there were likely to be unsuccessful, particularly after the board strongly and correctly rejected their nominations on competition and conflict of interest grounds?
Answer: Acting chair Gary Weiss provided no meaningful insights in response and when you combine that with these conciliatory comments at the end of the meeting, he's clearly trying to smoke the peace pipe with Helloworld and its Rich Lister CEO, which didn't save him when it came to the poll results.
Q5. Helloworld is our largest shareholder with 20%. Its CEO Andrew Burnes told The AFR in July: "they have spent an inordinate amount of money on advertising. It's widely acknowledged in the travel industry as being the worst advertising campaign in travel, probably ever. Little suitcases talking to each other and a tagline: ‘go somewhere',” What is your response to this and what is the likely trajectory of advertising spending going forward. Are we winding it down & were the criticisms fair?
Answer: Acting chair Gary Weiss said the new CEO Nicole Sheffield is just a month into the job and any changes to strategy will become apparent at the upcoming half year results announcement. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q6. As was raised last year, clause 10.10 of our constitution, which we inherited in the demerger process, creates an unreasonable barrier to entry for board candidates? The Burnes got around this because they owned more than 5%, but any other candidate would have to spend days rounding up 100 shareholder signatures. Gary Weiss has never sat on a board with such an entrenchment provision. Will he undertake to propose a constitutional amendment next year to normalise our board nomination rules.
Answer: Acting chair Gary Weiss struggled to understand this question and asked for it to be read twice. He then said they'd look at it but I doubt they'll fix it as no company ever has and I've been asking for years. Here is the list of companies which have such entrenchment provisions. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q7. Thank you for running a best practice hybrid AGM, including early proxy disclosure. Will you include head count data in the poll results as done previously? And will you publish a full AGM transcript, as has been done previously?
Answer: The Webjet question wrangler did a great job clearly reading out all written questions with no edits but because this one was pitched on the last item to do with Gary being paid with stock rather than cash, he rejected it as irrelevant. He didn't commit and they failed to produce the headcount data in these dramatic poll results. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
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