Todays AFR Page 27 - Wanted: Independent Directors, page-4

I put the idea to CTP Board before 2017 AGM a shareholder be selected to have access to Board papers and disseminate on an agreed basis information to all shareholders. This would remove the perceived distance between shareholders and Board and negate perceived conflicts of interest. The idea was one of eleven things i asked the Board. The one Board member who addressed the suggestion was very firm in their view that independent directors are there as the shareholders representative to ensure all shareholders interests are addressed and, in their opinion, my suggestion was inappropriate. The directors point of view gives directors a clear " role " to play and " legitimises ", in their view, why they are on the board and what they do. I accept directors hold that view sincerely. I don't agree with it. There is a distance between and difference in perceptions between directors and owners ( shareholders ) and strategies and tactics used to resolve choices and opportunities may be very different by both groups. Legalism and directors attention to their career interests is a clear conflict of interest and a continuing source of frustration and disempowerment of owners. I am an activist shareholder and co-operate with intelligent rational purposeful other shareholders in creating constructive shareholder value change. Directors who resist shareholder activism are out of place and time in history. Shareholders must be comprehensively and timely informed and directors must work with them.