Meg O’Neill has expressed after frustration with climate change protesters amid a heavy police presence at the company annual general meeting in Perth.
Former Howard government minister Ian Macfarlane has been re-elected to the board of Woodside Energy, surviving a push by major investors to censure the company over its reporting of climate-related issues.
However, a resolution from an activist shareholder group that would have required Woodside to disclose more information on how its capital allocation for oil and gas aligned with a scenario of net-zero emissions by 2050 was overwhelmingly voted down, with 93.3 per cent against.After the meeting, Ms O’Neill said Woodside would continue to engage with shareholders who had concerns about its strategy but re-affirmed the importance of gas in the transition to a lower-carbon economy.
“It is quite frustrating actually because we’d like to be able to really engage with the thousands of mums and dads who hold our shares and want to learn more about our company and have that interaction.”Ms O’Neill said the meeting had been constructive and at times challenging as Woodside was quizzed on environmental issues and emissions reduction targets.
Mr Macfarlane’s re-election to the board was opposed by 34.81 per cent of shareholders, and there were substantial votes against Larry Archibald and Swee Chen Goh . Almost 21 per cent of shareholders voted against the remuneration report.Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility lead analyst Alex Hillman said the result was unprecedented as only one Woodside director over the previous decade had received less than 95 per cent support.
Mr Macfarlane declined to comment after the meeting, but Mr Goyder joked the former politician would have been happy with anything more than 50 per cent in support.
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