[Greens-Media] Greens move to curb massive CEO payouts

[Bennett, Ebony (Sen B. Brown)]

Thursday, 4 December 2008

Greens move to curb massive CEO payouts

Termination payments to CEOs valued at over $1 million should require
shareholder approval, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"Shareholders should be empowered to restrain massive payments to
departing CEOs," Senator Brown said.

Former Reserve Bank Governor Ian Macfarlane has criticised pay
structures which awarded multi-million dollar executive bonuses for
short-term profit results which, he said, 'were not returnable when the
short-term profits were lost in subsequent years'.

Senator Brown will move amendments to the Corporations Amendment (Short
Selling) Bill 2008 to require shareholder approval of any termination
payment, including vesting of unvested equity incentives, above $1
million. They will close loopholes in the Act which allow companies to
avoid gaining approval for termination payments above a threshold of
seven times total remuneration.

Senator Brown said he was looking forward to the Rudd government's
response to the Greens motion, passed by the Senate last week, which
called on the government to: "detail before Parliament rises in 2008,
the actions it will take in relation to concerns about executive
salaries, as expressed by the Prime Minister in both Australian and
international forums."

Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603


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Ebony Bennett
Media Advisor 
Senator Bob Brown | Leader of the Australian Greens 
e: ebony.bennett at aph.gov.au 
m: 0409 164 603 | p: (02) 6277 3170 | f: (02) 6277 3185
w: www.bobbrown.org.au <http://www.bobbrown.org.au/>