THE weather was hot and so was the debate at the Murray Goulburn annual meeting today.
After much discussion about constitutional amendments and an inconclusive vote, a resolution that modified the cooperative's constitution was passed at the end of the meeting via poll.
Most of the discussion at the meeting, that included up to 150 attendees, was about what MG described as “administrative or relatively minor in nature” constitution modifications.
These modifications included changing the constitution to allow for the appointment of up to three special directors.
MG shareholders approved the appointment of a second special director today in a separate resolution.
Farmers who spoke at the meeting about the constitution changes were not against increasing the number of special directors.
Rather they did not like how MG bundled all the constitution changes into one resolution.
Many said this would force them to vote against the changes in principle, even though they agreed with the changes.
Reminiscent of the annual meeting two years ago, many of the farmers who spoke said they saw these issues as important enough to be voted on separately and disliked how the cooperative included them all in the same resolution.
Other resolutions passed today included:
- Re-election of chairman Philip Tracy
- Re-election of director Bill Bodman
- Election of director Max Jelbart
- Re-election of special director Peter Hawkins
- Election of special director Michael Ihlein
- A rise to the remuneration pool of non-executive directors.
