WA Grains Group believe that given the instability of CBH over the past 12 months (dismissals, resignations, COVID-19, three new directors, new chairman and new deputy chairwoman, network strategy, China-barley tariffs,) that any changes to the structure of the board should not proceed at this point of time.
The WA Grains Group believes that all zones should have had their full quota of directors representing their views on the board while these proposed changes have been debated.
The board has chosen not to fill the director vacancies, pre-empting any decisions that may be have been made by the growers.
We believe that operating without a full complement of directors and pre-empting a decision by the growers is not constitutional, as stated by others in the rural press.
At grower meetings attended by our members, the view of the meetings expressed the opinion that they wanted the vacancies filled as they were due, this has been ignored.
Regarding the maximum length of time that a director can serve on the board, we feel that as the members currently have the opportunity to remove directors every three years that this change is not needed.
With the proposed extensions, in exceptional circumstances, the terms could be longer than nine years anyway.
With the proposed hybrid model of zone representation, (one grower director per zone, floating directors and independents), farmers run the risk of a high concentration of directors in one area and minimal representation in other areas.
The proposed reduction in elected board size while not reducing the number of independent directors, reduces the grower focus of the board.
One of the skills that directors bring to CBH is the knowledge of their zone, this will be diluted if the proposed changes go ahead.
The CBH narrative of continually comparing CBH to other companies and Co-ops then blaming the board size and structure for the ongoing issues and lack of performance of CBH is a red herring.
The proposed changes will make no difference to the real issues within CBH and the issues facing our industry.
