"Our" business?
OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it both ways when it comes to the success of NZ's dairy industry.
Fonterra directors and shareholder councillors will go without a pay rise for a third straight year.
Though the director remunerations committee has signalled a pay rise is on the cards next year, it recommends director and councillor fees remain unchanged for 2016-17.
Chairman John Wilson gets $405,000 annual fees, directors get $165,000 and board committee chairmen are entitled to an extra $31,000. Fonterra Shareholders Council chairman Duncan Coull gets $90,000, his deputy $55,550 and councillors $30,000 each.
Fonterra shareholders will vote on the proposal at the co-op’s annual meeting at Darfield next week (Dec 8).
The remunerations committee has six shareholders and is chaired by Waikato farmer David Gasquoine; the committee met in August to review board and councillor fees.
According to Fonterra’s notice of meeting, the committee reviewed the market trends for director fees and the workload expectations for Fonterra directors; and it discussed relativities between different roles, the nature of the company and the challenging conditions now facing shareholders.
“The committee believes it is important to set realistic fee levels, having particular regard to the broader market and the workload requirements, to ensure skilled directors are attracted and retained on the board.
“The committee notes that the directors’ remuneration was not increased in 2014 and 2015, appropriate given the challenging economic conditions experienced by shareholders. Given the lengthy duration of the challenging conditions, it is again appropriate for remuneration levels to remain unchanged in the current year.”
But the committee notes that to attract and retain the best director candidates, and to align with the market, increases in remuneration will be required in the coming years.
On Shareholder Council fees, the committee foreshadowed a review of council wards with a view to reducing the number of wards and councillors.
“The committee recognises that if the number of Shareholders Council wards is reduced there may be an impact on councillors’ workload and expectations that may need to be addressed by the committee in 2017 when assessing appropriate remuneration levels.”
The annual meeting will also ratify the appointment of three independent directors -- sitting directors Simon Israel and David Jackson and new appointee Scott St John.
St John is a director of Fisher and Paykel Healthcare and the incoming chancellor of the University of Auckland.
Following a recent overweight incursion that saw a Mid-Canterbury contractor cop a $12,150 fine, the rural contracting industry is calling time on what they consider to be outdated and unworkable regulations regarding weight and dimensions that they say are impeding their businesses.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says his officials plan to meet their US counterparts every month from now on to better understand how the 15% tariff issue there will play out, and try and get some certainty there for our exporters about the future.
A landmark New Zealand trial has confirmed what many farmers have long suspected - that strategic spring nitrogen use not only boosts pasture growth but delivers measurable gains in lamb growth and ewe condition.
It was recently announced that former MP and Southland farmer Eric Roy has stepped down of New Zealand Pork after seven years. Leo Argent talks with Eric about his time at the organisation and what the future may hold.
It's critical that the horticulture sector works together as part of a goal to double the sector’s exports by 2035.
RaboResearch, the research arm of specialist agriculture industry banker Rabobank, sees positives for the Alliance Group in its proposed majority-stake sale to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
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