Chairman John Mullen refused at the AGM on Tuesday to answer questions about Ms Brenner’s ability to handle corporate governance issues, after questions were raised over her tenure on the Qantas board.
New Telstra director Maxine Brenner has been hit with a 17 per cent vote against her election to the telecommunications group’s board after one proxy firm raised concerns over how she has handled corporate governance issues while on the board of Qantas.
Mr Mullen disagreed, pointing out that Telstra didn’t take a position on every social issue but it thought it was appropriate to do so on the Voice. Telstra was “engaged every single day” with Indigenous communities across Australia and thought it was the right decision, he said., contributing $1 million to advertising campaigns.
An ever-increasing challenge is how to monetise the extraordinary technology and capabilities offered by telcos like Telstra,” he said.