Hit the ARU directors in the hip-pocket nerve

Some of these ARU directors have directorships in other companies, some public companies in which you guys directly or via your super funds have money invested. Do you want incompetents looking after your hard-earned savings? A big NO is what I would imagine.

One of the worst of them, and biggest hypocrite is John Eales. The ARU website gives the following information. John Eales..."currently sits on the Boards of the Flight Centre Travel Group, the Australian Rugby Union, FujiXerox DMS, Palladium Group and International Quarterback." Of these Flight Centre (FLT on ASX) is a public company.

I also found out yesterday that John Eales was appointed recently to the board of another public company, a major investment company, Magellan Financial Group (MFG on ASX). He must stand for election in the AGM in October.As a shareholder, I will vote against him. I do not want an incompetent director managing my investment! MFG is currently hiving off a massive new investment fund "Magellan Global Trust", at least $250,000,000 and promoted by several leading brokers and banks. It looks quite attractive, and something that many of you, or your super funds, will be considering. If you are a shareholder in MFG or considering investing in their new fund, vote against Eales and/or write to the Chairman and/or CEO of Magellan Financial Group, and let them know of your lack of confidence in their recent board appointment.

Brett Cairns, Executive Chairman;
Hamish Douglass, Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer

Hamish Douglass, Chris Mackay (previous Chairman) and a giant US financial services and investment company, FMC LLC (aka Fidelity Investments) are the major shareholders. These are also worth contacting to warn about the new director's shortcomings.

Similar action could be taken by interested shareholders of the other public company, Flight Centre.

Eales' directorship of Palladium Group is interesting. Also a director is fellow ARU director Anne Sherry. Both most likely are there because of fellow director and founding partner David Crombie, who many may remember was the ARU Chairman before Cameron Clyne. What a cosy little arrangement for ARU directors! Write to David Crombie and present Chairman Ken Warriner (longtime mate of the late Kerry Packer) and let them know what you think of Eales and Sherry!

Anne Sherry is also a director of ASX listed Sydney Airport Corporation (SYD) and ING bank. As a shareholder in SYD, I'll be making my opinions known by vote, to the chairman and to major shareholders. Suggest others do likewise.

And last but certainly not the least, the biggest rogue of all, Cameron Clyne. He has been appointed as chairman of the health insurer backed website business, Whitecoat. This is not a public company, but NIB, BUPA and HBF are among the shareholders, and pressure could be directed to them regarding the ethics of their new chairman.

If enough concerned people take action against these other directorships, then this could send a clear message to these idiots that they can not behave as they have without consequences. Hurting them financially may be the only way, as they seem to have no moral consciences.

If anyone has access to other forums (in the far East?), please post this on them.

I'd be smashing the sponsors as well. Shame we only really have two airline carriers in Australia in terms if the naming rights.

what about Rob Clarke? Hes not an ARU director but I feel he's a bit slimy. does he sit on any boards?

A few points:

As Alison would have noticed in here extensive Financial Analysis, the ARU financials are reported and managed under a company operated with the Corporations Act 2001. Directors of such companies are bound by four basic directors’ duties and the Corporations Act 2001 specifies them:

Care and diligence - to act with the degree of care and diligence that a reasonable person might be expected to show in the role (section 180). The same duty is imposed on directors at common law.

Recent court cases have emphasised this duty in relation to the approval of financial statements (Centro case) and board approval of statements issued by a company (James Hardie cases). There can also be a breach of this duty by causing a company to enter into risky transactions without any prospect of producing a benefit or where a managing director fails to inform the board of matters which clearly should have been brought to the board's attention.

Good faith - to act in good faith in the best interests of the company and for a proper purpose (s 181), including to avoid conflicts of interest, and to reveal and manage conflicts if they arise. This is both a duty of fidelity and trust, known as a ‘fiduciary duty’ imposed by general law and a duty required in legislation;

Improper use of position - to not improperly use their position to gain an advantage for themselves or someone else or to the detriment to the company (s 182);

Improper use of information - to not improperly use the information they gain in the course of their director duties to gain an advantage for themselves or someone else or to the detriment to the company (s 183).

I am sure the Force Legal team are all over this but there seems plenty to work with here - and plenty of potential concerns/questions that can be raised with the other companies where ARU Directors are engaged... on behalf of other shareholders or stakeholders of course.

The questions and concerns seem more pointed when considering the public conduct of the Chairman throughout these team cutting discussions and his (potential?) conflict of interest with the VRU/Rebels... This conflict jumps out even more when we hear of him asking Geoff Stooke to recuse himself from discussions on the Force future as Geoff was perceived to be "conflicted".

One other issue is that the Chairman and a number of directors do not appear to be members of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). It is very common for Directors of Public Companies and Public Bodies to be part of this group - indeed many of our largest public companies almost mandate membership. The point here is that members of the AICD are bound by a Code of Conduct that applies even stricter guidelines on how Directors are to behave than the Corps Act.

Food for thought!

I posted following surface mail letter to Alan Joyce at Qantas more a week ago. I did not have an email address. No response as yet.

"Dear Alan.

I was horrified when Tony Overheu humiliated you by smashing a cream pie into your face in public in Perth recently.
Mr Overheu later said the stunt was his way of making a statement about corporate Australia trying to influence social issues including gay marriage.
You responded by vowing to continue to campaign on social issues and said you would continue to speak out to Qantas employees, shareholders and customers.

Up to that point, I was probably mildly opposed to gay marriage myself. However that fool made me to exam my own conscience and think deeply about the issue. So he has actually caused me to change my views and I will be voting in favour of gay marriage.
Talking to my friends and family about the issue, I think you might be pleasantly surprised at the outcome of the plebiscite.

Now the people of Western Australia need you to speak out on another major social injustice, and that is the culling of the Western Force rugby team. The ARU have smashed a great dirty unjust pie in the face of all of your WA based Qantas employees, shareholders and customers. Unlike your pie, this one will not wash off in a few minutes. This pie will leave a permanent stain.

WA has is the third biggest rugby state and is the only state where rugby is growing. This year, the Force finished ahead of the NSW Waratahs, Qld Reds and Melbourne Rebels on the Super Rugby table. Yet these “old fools” in NSW and Qld have voted to cull the Force. The voting numbers are rigged in favour of NSW and Qld, unlike your plebiscite where everybody gets one vote.
Cameron Clyne has said it was a financial decision. But yesterday he rejected a $50 million offer to the ARU from Twiggy Forrest.
I could go on for pages about this insane and deceitful evaluation process of the ARU, but I am sure you have read some of other many outraged comments from right across Australia.

You are a major sponsor of the Qantas Wallabies, and would have considerable influence in getting the so called Australian Rugby Union to change their mind. (Soon to be renamed the Eastern Australian Rugby Union or EARU)

Qantas have great plans to use Perth as a major hub for direct flights to and from Europe. The same WA taxpayers, that have just copped the ARU pie, have just stumped up a $14 million to alter the airport terminal for you.

The Qantas Wallabies will be playing against the Springboks in Perth in September.
WA fans are planning to fill the stadium wearing their blue Force gear in protest against the ARU decision.
Ironically Emirates used to be a major sponsor of the Force and most of our blue jackets and jumpers are still emblazoned with words “Fly Emirates”.

Do not worry, I have never flown on Emirates and I do not intend start now. But I have flown on Qantas at least a hundred times. However there is a massive growing anger in WA, and rugby fans are starting to turn on the ARU through their sponsors and broadcasting partners etc.


I look forward to your response and hearing you speak out on this issue.

Good luck with the plebiscite."

Sent following email to qantascampusreception@qantas.com.au

No reply though. If anyone has a more direct email for Mr Joyce please let me know.

Dear Mr Joyce,

I write to you principally because Qantas, under your leadership, is an organisation that has taken a stance on issues you believe in. You have become a company that above all wants to do the right thing by its stakeholders and you have been vocal in pursuing what I would call social justice issues, something I have respected.

However I would like to make you aware of a gross injustice which Qantas is indirectly involved in, but impacted by, through your sponsorship of the Qantas Wallabies.

I refer to the recent decision by the ARU to axe the Western Force from Super Rugby thus ostracising the rugby community here in WA from the rest of Australia.

What makes the decision difficult to take is the complete lack of disregard the ARU has shown the Force, its players and staff, its fans and the wider rugby community through what has been a secretive and underhand process. Equally the lack of transparency shown in coming to the unjust decision to cull the Force over the Melbourne Rebels shows a gross lack of governance and should be seen as a significant risk to Qantas in supporting the Wallabies and the ARU.

In a sign *of just how underhand this process has been three of the ARU’s directors, including the CEO, who were directly involved in the decision to single out the Force over any of the other Australian Super Rugby teams have either left or resigned from the ARU. The whole grubby saga stinks to high heaven. The ARU has deliberately misled the Force throughout this process, something that has left a huge strain on their reputation with the people of Western Ausralia and the rugby community at large.

This decision excludes Western Australia in large part because of the inconvenience of where we are geographically located in Australia something Qantas should condem because one of your primary roles is conneting people in this country. Their strategy to shrink the game is in direct contradiction to yours. And this is at a time when we are looking to be more inclusive in society.

It is a dagger through the heart of rugby in Western Australia, something all facets of the game in this State will not recover from. We are outcasts cut adrift by the governing body of sport who could not care less. There has been no community consultation and not one member of the ARU board or its directors has had the courage to come to Perth, look the good people of WA in the eye and tell us why. The reason is because they cant, there are no moral, sound or just grounds why they have made this decision.

This also comes at a time when Qantas is about to open up Perth as a key strategic hub for its global operations. It should be a time when organisations are investing in Perth to support this status rather than standing idly by. This decsion has alienated Western Force fans from the ARU and from the Wallabies and there is now a situation where a national sports team is universally unpopular in one if its own states. I have absolutely no doubt this bad will towards the ARU will flow through in *Qantas’ sponsorship of the Wallabies..

Mr Joyce, as a man of integrity, I *am asking you as the CEO of Australia’s national carrier to recognise the injustice and prejudice in this action by the ARU. I ask you to speak out against what is fundamentally a wrong decision against the interests of a national game and the people of WA.

I feel so strongly about how appallingly and unfairly this process has been conducted that I am prepared to boycott using Qantas for flights. I will also advise my friends and family not to use the new international service fron either UK or Australia.

I have nothing against Qantas but you have been tarnished with the ARU’s brush as it looks to de-nationalise the game in this country.

I am a member of the Westrn Force and my son plays junior rugby in this state. If the ARU came to the rugby community in WA and showed us just and sound reasons why they are revoking the Western Force’s licence i would accept that. But there are no just reasons, there are no criteria why we should be chosen over others, only bias and bigotry something you as the head of our national carrier, a major stakeholder in the game, must condemn and act against for what is right.

Thank you for your time.

Kind regards

Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster..
For what it is worth, I have a home loan with Suncorp which is about to be refinanced to another bank.
When arranging the discharge document I had to speak to the 'solutions team' at Suncorp who ask why I am leaving. I had great pleasure in telling them that I am leaving Suncorp because they have a lady named Pip Marlow as one of their CEO's and she has made a decision to cut the Western Force as a board member of the ARU and I refuse to put my money and my business with a company that is affiliated with someone like her.
The guy on the other end of the phone didn't know what to say..
Fingers crossed it makes a difference somehow!

Love it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dozra

Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster..
For what it is worth, I have a home loan with Suncorp which is about to be refinanced to another bank.
When arranging the discharge document I had to speak to the 'solutions team' at Suncorp who ask why I am leaving. I had great pleasure in telling them that I am leaving Suncorp because they have a lady named Pip Marlow as one of their CEO's and she has made a decision to cut the Western Force as a board member of the ARU and I refuse to put my money and my business with a company that is affiliated with someone like her.
The guy on the other end of the phone didn't know what to say..
Fingers crossed it makes a difference somehow!

---

Good on you! Others with Suncorp may consider threatening swapping and giving their reasons.

Likewise for anyone with ING Bank, where Anne Sherry presides on the board.

Likewise for those with BOQ where ARU vice chairman Brett Robinson is one of the divisional CEOs.

However, it is important to get the message to someone on the board, preferably the Chairman. A flunky on the "solutions team" is unlikely to have much infuence

Fcuk me. There goes my virgin mortgage underwritten by boq and savings account with ING. :-(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Usebeo

Fcuk me. There goes my virgin mortgage underwritten by boq and savings account with ING. :-(

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I was about to suggest to all those Force fans who are lucky enough to drive a nice BMW (not me!), that they should take their BMW in a dealer tomorrow and trade them in on a nice Merc. However I see BMW have already pulled the pin on the ARU.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/06/07...ng-out-of-nrc/

Keep the heat on those sponsors. They need to get hundreds of letters from us, before the end of the current international series.