Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) has refused to backdown on the five recommendations they say are for shareholder consideration in their Review of Performance (RPO) implementation plan.
AWI were asked for additional information on the implementation plan for all 82 recommendations made by the Federal Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, after he labeled their first attempt “short in detail” and “vague”.
At the Senate estimates hearing last week, AWI secretary Jim Story reneged on the proxy position saying that the proxy voting system didn’t need to be placed in front of shareholders for voting.
But it seems that AWI are still considering it as one of the five recommendations to go before shareholders.
Fairfax Agriculture Media has contacted the Minister for Agriculture’s office for comment on the resubmitted plan.
AWI CEO Stuart McCullough highlighted that AWI’s implementation plan specifies how the organisation will address all 82 recommendations included in the ROP.
“Let me express AWI’s support for implementing all 82 recommendations included in the ROP,” Mr McCullough said.
“Our implementation plan provides a comprehensive three-year roadmap to successfully complete this process.
“In implementing each of the 82 recommendations, our actions in the plan fall into three categories.
“The first are the 75 recommendations that relate to operational matters, the implementation of which I am pleased to report are already under way and some of which are already complete.
“The second category, of which there are two items, are those which are agreed in principle. We are working to identify a best approach to implementation.
“The third category includes five recommendations that the Board believes would result in significant change to the ‘DNA’ of AWI, and as such are highlighted for special consideration by AWI shareholders.
“As all changes to AWI’s Constitution require support from its shareholders, AWI will put those recommendations requiring shareholder deliberations to an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be held in March 2019.
“In preparing our implementation plan, we have listened to woolgrowers and thought hard about what we do. Our plan provides a clear roadmap for continual improvement to the organisation and demonstrates our commitment to maintaining our industry leadership position and acting in the best interests of Australian woolgrowers.”
Mr McCullough added, “Transparency and information flow with woolgrowers and industry has been of critical importance to AWI throughout this ROP cycle as we embrace all the recommendations.
“In addition to our implementation plan, AWI has launched a Review of Performance Implementation Portal (ROPIP) to publish our implementation plan and report on our progress implementing the 82 recommendations.
“The ROPIP is there for all to see with an up-to-date status of our progress. We see great value in ongoing business improvement to ensure we continue to deliver benefits for woolgrowers.”