Goyder survives as Woodside chair at fiery meeting

Richard Goyder has survived a campaign to oust him as Woodside Energy chair, but the gas producer’s climate action plan was voted down at today’s protester interrupted annual general meeting in Perth.

The Woodside chair had the support of 82.7 per cent of the proxy shareholder vote when his re-election went to ballot, with 16.6 per cent against. The final figure is not yet known, with votes from the room to be tallied.

Mr Goyder’s bid for re-election had been subject to considerable scrutiny in the lead up to the AGM with activist shareholders pushing for his removal from the business because of its climate performance.

Calls for Mr Goyder’s head led by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and backed by proxy adviser CGI Glass Lewis.

His chairmanship was backed by a number of other major firms, including Institutional Shareholder Services and superannuation fund HESTA, and he was considered likely to survive the push against him.

Mr Goyder was last elected to chair Woodside in 2021, when he received 99.2 per cent of the vote.

In his opening speech to the event, Mr Goyder revealed he had held 43 climate change meetings with investors in 2023, and a further 40 since the beginning of 2024.

Mr Goyder, who announced he would stand down as Qantas chair last year following intense public scrutiny over the company’s performance, said company directors had come under increasing investor, media and stakeholder scrutiny for their responsibilities.

He labelled Woodside “one of the most scrutinised companies” in Australia at the moment and was at times defensive during the Q&A session.

“I believe that all plans and ideas are improved when they are subject to scrutiny and constructive feedback, and this has been the case over the past 12 months,” he said.  

Despite the feedback, the company’s climate action plan – voluntarily put to shareholders for their consideration at the AGM – was voted down by 58.36 per cent of participating shareholders. 

The plan, which has been updated since almost 49 per cent of shareholders voted against it in 2022, was less supported than Mr Goyder’s re-election in the lead-up. The vote is not binding and would not require the company to take any action.

Mr Goyder said the company would take seriously the opinions put forward by its shareholders in relation to the plan.

Both he and Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill reiterated the company’s stance that that its approach was practical while addressing climate issues.

“Recently we’ve seen some of our global peers walk back from climate goals they now realise were too ambitious amid the uncertainty of the energy transition,” Ms O’Neill said.

“At Woodside, we are determined to play our role in addressing climate change.

“But we won’t make promises that we can’t deliver.”

Ms O’Neill committed to setting goals and decisions informed by available science and within its capital allocation framework with energy security front of mind.

Mr Goyder said the company would like to invest more into new energy solutions but was hamstrung by customer needs.

“We would love to be investing more money in new energy right now, if we only had the customers, and customers were prepared to make the tradeoffs, particularly financial,” he said.

“Many of our customers have significant costs in moving from their current operations to new sources of energy, and we will be part of that journey with them.

“But we cannot and won’t be turning on a dime on this, and nor should [shareholders] or anyone expect us to do that.”

Ms O’Neill reiterated Woodside’s challenges in hydrogen, where the company has previously spoken of its battles to secure firm customer commitments in the current market.

However, she said the company was committed to pushing ahead with smaller scale projects as the appetite grows for hydrogen into the 2030s. 

Mr Goyder was quizzed on a wide range of matters, touching on subjects including the company’s $2 million contribution to the ‘Yes’ campaign at last year’s referendum, its position on cobalt mining, and the stringent nature of the AGM’s security policy.

“I don’t think anyone should be surprised that Woodside supported the campaign,” Mr Goyder said of Woodside’s contribution to the referendum last year.

He also defended Woodside’s remuneration for its executives, in the face of cost-of-living pressures facing everyday Australians.

Despite complaints about the meeting's security checks, the AGM was twice interrupted by protestors as shareholders voted on the company's remuneration report, singing a parody of Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over, followed by a smaller group of protestors wearing Disrupt Burrup branding, who were later revealed to be chanting the names of Mr Goyder and Ms O'Neill's respective children.