Ann: Letter to Shareholders-OBJ.AX, page-53

This issue is not about whether you should trust "management", although we are talking about the Board here, only one of which is technically "management".  The issue is whether it was proper for the Board to issue these "performance" rights with no hurdles, and what implications flow from that in terms of behaviour and culture.  I view all my shareholdings equally: is the action legal (?), is it ethical (?), is it justified (?).  Regardless of whether they are all great people or what they have done in the past, the answer for me is "no" to all three.  So I vote "no" and we all move on.

It is the implications for behaviour - why did they put this up at all (given it contradicts ASX listing rules), and will it happen again? - that concern me.  The issue and subsequent attempts at justification were not simple errors, they were compounding errors - of judgement.  The Board needs to take responsibility for the fiasco.  I don't see that yet (at all).

So the big question for me is, how well is the company being directed, and subsequently, managed?  Now we have resolutions at the AGM, with a subsequent vague promise to apply some low hurdles.  Are the hurdles binding?  It doesn't appear so, given that the resolutions cannot change.  It is still very unclear.

As a new shareholder I have no history thus no bias against anyone, but I expect that well-paid people like OBJ directors are competent and act with complete integrity, for the benefit of all shareholders.