Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our shareholders here in Sydney, those joining us online, and to all of my Origin colleagues. My name is Scott Perkins, and I am the Chair of Origin Energy Limited. It is my privilege to chair Origin's 27th annual general meeting.
Before I formally declare the meeting open, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I would also like to pay my respects to the traditional custodians of the various lands from which many are watching the webcast.
I would like to provide you with some important information regarding safety procedures we all need to follow in the unlikely event of an emergency. You will note the emergency exits in the ballroom. Should there be an emergency situation, await directions from the hotel staff. If you hear the evacuation tone, you should move to the nearest exit. For any medical matters, please contact any of the staff members available for assistance. Thank you.
It is now 10:00 A.M., and as there is a quorum of shareholders present, I formally declare the meeting open. I am pleased to welcome all shareholders and visitors here today. In addition to those present, the holders of approximately 1.2 billion shares, or approximately 70.07% of the issued capital, are here represented by proxy. I will take the notice convening the meeting as read. The minutes of the 2025 AGM have been signed and copies are available on request from the Company Secretary.
Please note that this meeting is being webcast live via the online platform, and a copy of its recording will also be available on our website after the meeting. Shareholders that are watching the webcast online will see a split screen with the instructions on how to ask questions online on the left and on the webcast on the right. Further instructions are detailed in your online platform user guide, which is available on our AGM website. If you have trouble using the online platform, please contact Boardroom on the telephone number shown on the online platform screen.
Before commencing formal proceedings, I would like to introduce the Board and members of senior management who are here today. From your left are the Non-executive Directors, Dr. Nora Scheinkestel, Mr. Deion Campbell, Ms. Fiona Hick, Mr. Greg Lalicker, Ms. Ilana Atlas, Mr. Frank Calabria, our CEO and Managing Director. On my left is Ms. Helen Hardy, our Company Secretary, and other Non-executive Directors, Dame Joan Withers, Mr. Stephen Mikkelsen, and Mr. Mick McCormack. In front of the room are the other members of Origin's senior management, Jon Briskin, Kate Jordan, Tony Lucas, Chief Financial Officer, James Magill, Aleta Nicoll, Alicia Purtell, and Samantha Stevens, along with Andrew Thornton. Mr. Ryan Fisk of EY, the company's auditor, is also present.
The order of business today will commence with my address, following which Frank will discuss our results and prospects for the coming year. Finally, we will consider the formal business and resolutions set out in the notice of meeting. Refreshments will be served at the end of the meeting, which will also give you an opportunity to meet with Directors and management. I will now move to my address to today's meeting.
Today, we will reflect on Origin's performance over the last year and our progress in executing our strategy whilst continuing to be guided by our purpose, getting energy right for our customers, communities, and the planet. It has been another dynamic year in energy. Geopolitical uncertainty has caused significant shifts in global commodity markets, cost-of-living pressures have persisted for Australian households, and we have seen continued regulatory and technological change.
Australia's energy transition advanced this year, although not evenly. An acceleration in the uptake of home batteries and electric vehicles, complementing Australia's high penetration rates of rooftop solar, was evidence of the continued momentum in the energy transition for residential customers. Significant new grid-scale battery capacity helped to ease wholesale electricity prices, putting downward pressure on bills for homes and for businesses.
The build-out of infrastructure that the transition depends on, new renewables, firming, and transmission, is proving difficult. Projects are taking longer, costs have risen materially, connection and approval processes remain complex, and the medium-term regulatory picture is uncertain. We are seeing these challenges firsthand at our Yanco Delta Wind Farm development in New South Wales, where even with Capacity Investment Scheme support, the economics remain very challenging.
This challenge, the pace, cost, and scale of the build-out the transition needs, is about to become more acute. The rise of artificial intelligence and the data centers that underpin it is one of the most significant investment thematics of our time, a genuine economic opportunity for Australia, and increasingly, a matter of national capability. It is also a demand story for our sector. The latest forecasts illustrate data center demand is expected to grow steeply over the next decade, presenting a challenge, but also a unique opportunity to help underpin new renewable projects.
Building the infrastructure our energy system needs was already a significant task before this new source of demand arrived. Now the task to build it fast enough and at sufficient scale is upon us. Households and businesses depend on reliable, affordable power, as do the new industries that will define Australia's economic future. We must be mindful that regional host communities are being asked to carry a disproportionate share of the burden of infrastructure build-out, and too often the benefits they don't receive, they don't match what's being asked of them.
Realizing the opportunities the energy transition and AI revolution represent for Australia should not come at the cost of ordinary households and small businesses. Sharing the benefits of growth properly, visibly, and early, and ensuring those who create new demand also bear its costs, is the collective work of governments, regulators, networks, and companies like ours. To this end, government policy will continue to shape the pace of this transition and how fairly its costs and benefits are shared. Origin's task is to navigate these challenges as they arise while continuing to build the assets, products, and services our customers and the future energy system will need. I'll return to how we're doing on that shortly.
Now turning to financial performance. Origin delivered a solid full-year result with statutory profit of AUD 1.574 billion, up from AUD 1.481 billion the prior year. Underlying profit was AUD 1.59 billion compared to AUD 1.49 billion in the prior year. Strong cash generation and a healthy balance sheet allowed Origin to keep investing in the business and determine a fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.30 per share, bringing total fully franked dividends for FY 2026 to AUD 0.60 a share, in line with FY 2025 dividends. This reflects the board's commitment to stable shareholder returns while retaining balance sheet flexibility for growth.
The team made good progress executing Origin's strategy, and the portfolio is well-positioned for a changing energy market. We brought significant new battery capacity into commercial operation, we progressed our Yanco Delta Wind Farm development, and continued to grow our customer base through innovative new products and services.
Australia Pacific LNG had another solid year, contributing meaningfully to our free cash flow with AUD 911 million of fully franked dividends. Our 22.7% economic interest in both Octopus Energy and Kraken Technologies provides meaningful exposure to international growth. When our CEO, Frank Calabria, addresses you shortly, he will provide a more detailed review of Origin's FY 2026 performance and the outlook for FY 2027.
Origin takes great pride in being Australia's largest energy retailer. We feel a sense of responsibility in providing an essential service that exists at every home and business and underpins our economy. We continue to focus on supporting our financially vulnerable customers. As cost of living pressures persisted for many Australians, our total support for customers in hardship grew to approximately AUD 125 million over the past three years.
More recently, our focus has been on supporting Origin customers affected by the recent data security incident involving unauthorized access to some of their information. Customers place enormous trust in Origin to protect their information and we do not take that for granted. We have apologized to those customers who were affected whilst providing support and taken a number of steps to enhance the security of our systems to prevent future incidents of this kind.
We've seen no evidence of the information being published on the internet or the dark web to date. However, we note that this remains and affected customers will need to remain vigilant to any suspicious activity or scams. We continue to monitor this situation. Unfortunately, individuals and businesses, no matter where they are around the world, face a growing threat from this sort of criminally motivated cyber activity. The threat environment is constantly evolving and we will have to work hard to continue to protect the security of our systems and our customers' information. We are committed to doing just that.
I would also like to acknowledge the diligence and care for our customers evident in management's response to this incident. More broadly, Origin plays its part in contributing to Australian communities from supporting many local initiatives around our assets and developments to our new sponsorship of the Australian Men's and Women's Cricket teams. Our philanthropic foundation, The Origin Foundation, contributed more than AUD 3.7 million to community initiatives with a cumulative AUD 49 million contributed since 2010, and more than a quarter of our people volunteered their time to worthy causes.
We continue to make progress against our 2030 emissions targets with total Scope 1, 2 and 3 equity emissions down 2% from FY 2025. Scope 1 equity emissions declined 7%. As we have said before, the path to our targets is not linear, and we will continue to take a prudent approach to achieving emissions reductions whilst balancing security, reliability, and affordability of supply.
I would also like to acknowledge the dedication and leadership of our CEO, Frank, and to his executive management team, along with the entire Origin workforce. Our achievements this year would not have been possible without their care and commitment as they navigated considerable complexity while continuing to stay true to Origin's purpose and honoring the trust shareholders, customers, and communities place in us. I also thank all my fellow directors for their contribution and their counsel.
In conclusion, Origin is a great Australian business with the strategy, assets, and capabilities to navigate this energy transition and to continue to deliver value to our customers, to Australia, and to our shareholders in doing so. Thank you for your continued support.
I now invite Chief Executive, Frank Calabria, to address the meeting.
Thank you, Scott. Good morning, and a warm welcome to all our shareholders joining us today. It has been another strong year of progress for Origin, growing our customer base, expanding our battery portfolio, and providing secure and reliable electricity and gas for Australian households and businesses. Behind those results is a simple premise, Origin does well when our customers and communities do well. We work for them and with them in their homes, in their businesses, in the regions that host our assets, and in the policy debates that will shape what they pay for energy for years to come. That is the lens I want to bring to this morning, and it is why I want to start with the challenges facing the sector before turning to our results.
Energy underpins everything in our economy, the cost of living for every household, the competitiveness of every business, and Australia's productivity. The reliability of energy today and its sustainability into the future is something everyone depends on. Few sectors carry that same weight, and fewer are undergoing the scale of change that energy is undergoing right now at a time when Australian households and businesses are already under real cost pressure.
The transition is now entering a harder phase. Significant progress is being led by customers embracing rooftop solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. Origin's data shows our customers who have electrified with solar, a battery, and an EV are saving around AUD 1,000 per annum on their total household energy costs, a significant saving. These customers may not yet represent the masses. However, they do reinforce that the benefits the transition promises for customers are real.
The path we are on is the right one. However, the next phase of the transition depends on large-scale infrastructure, transmission lines, renewable projects, firming capacity, energy capacity, storage, and delivering that at scale and pace is now the binding constraint. Policy settings are absolutely crucial to deliver the significant investment needed and will ultimately determine whether or not this transition is reliable and affordable for customers.
Origin is engaging constructively on several major policy reforms, which are now reaching decision points. These include the domestic gas reservation, the National Electricity Market review, including the proposed Electricity Services Entry Mechanism, and reforms to environmental approvals under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. There is also the emerging framework for data center energy use, now out for consultation. Each will shape investment in the energy system for the next decade and beyond.
What these reforms need most is durability. Energy and climate policy has too often shifted with the political cycle, and that uncertainty has a price. Investment gets deferred, projects stall, and the cost of that delay ultimately lands on customers and on the broader economy. Bipartisan lasting agreement on the fundamentals across all levels of government is the outcome Origin will keep advocating for.
Turning to Origin's 2026 financial year performance, which reflected the strength of our portfolio and focused progress against our strategy. A strong contribution from Energy Markets and disciplined cost management supported continued investment and shareholder returns, even as Integrated Gas earnings moderated as expected on lower commodity prices. Energy Markets delivered underlying EBITDA of AUD 1.701 billion, up from AUD 1.404 billion in the 2025 financial year and towards the upper end of our guidance range with strong performance across electricity, natural gas, LPG, and energy services.
Origin brought significant new battery capacity into commercial operation with 1.3 GW of large-scale batteries now operating as part of a 1.8 GW development program. These assets will become increasingly important as variable and renewable energy enters the system, supporting reliable supply through the transition.
Our Yanco Delta Wind Farm project also made progress towards a final investment decision. However, economics remain challenging even with support from the Capacity Investment Scheme. More customers are choosing and staying with Origin, with our customer base reaching 4.94 million accounts and churn almost 7% better than the market average. We continue to make it simpler for homeowners to manage their energy use with new app features, products, and electrification options.
More than a quarter of Origin customer homes now generate their own power through solar, and the number with a home battery nearly doubled over the year. Customers electrifying are looking for a partner to help them get the most value out of their assets, and one way to do this is through joining our virtual power plant, Origin Loop, which grew to 409,000 connected services.
As cost pressures persisted for Australian households, Origin also contributed AUD 40 million in targeted assistance to those in financial hardship. Integrated Gas underlying EBITDA was AUD 1.62 billion, down from AUD 2.202 billion in the 2025 financial year, in line with our expectations of lower oil-linked earnings as Australia Pacific LNG and lower LNG trading gains. Australia Pacific LNG production continues to be one of the largest and reliable sources of gas supply for Australia's East Coast market and delivered strong cash returns to Origin with fully franked dividends of AUD 911 million, up from AUD 797 million in FY 2025. In FY 2026, domestic gas prices remained significantly lower than international prices. Reliable and affordable gas supply will continue to be important for domestic customers, including manufacturers, and for firming electricity to keep the lights on through all weather supply and demand scenarios.
Octopus Energy and Kraken Technologies continue to grow strongly following their separation into standalone businesses this year. Octopus Energy grew customer accounts by 2.2 million to 19 million accounts and was named Britain's most admired company in 2025. Kraken Technologies contracted customer accounts grew 28% to 95 million, approaching its 2027 target of 100 million accounts. In July, Kraken Technologies completed a US$1 billion standalone equity raise at a valuation of US$8.65 billion, in which Origin invested US$140 million to maintain our interest. Combined, Origin's share of Octopus Energy and Kraken Technologies' underlying EBITDA was a loss of AUD 8 million, a significant improvement on the AUD 88 million loss in FY 2025 and reflecting the ongoing investment in growth.
Looking ahead, our focus remains on the disciplined execution of our strategy, helping households and businesses get more value from their energy, including supporting them on their electrification journey and continuing to invest in our business. Today, I am pleased to reaffirm the FY 2027 guidance provided at our full-year results in August. Origin expects Energy Markets underlying EBITDA to be in a range of AUD 1.55 billion-AUD 1.85 billion, reflecting the ramp-up of our battery portfolio, offset by lower wholesale electricity prices. Australia Pacific LNG production in FY 2027 is expected to be between 625 and 670 petajoules, reflecting natural field decline with increased drilling activity helping to partially offset that decline in future years.
Octopus Energy is expected to continue to scale profitably in the U.K., with EBITDA per customer expected to be between GBP 25 and GBP 50 . Origin expects continued growth in scaling customers in the non-U.K. retail markets and more moderate investment in energy services as it trends towards break-even EBITDA. Kraken Technologies is expected to deliver revenue growth of more than 20% as it continues to bring new customer accounts onto its platform.
Before I close, I want to acknowledge our people. Everything I've covered today for customers, communities, and shareholders is possible thanks to them. They're the ones on the phones, operating our assets, and working behind the scenes to keep energy flowing reliably for Australia. I would also like to note our encouraging progress on safety this year with our total recordable injury frequency rate improving from 4.4 last year to 2.9. Our engagement score also improved slightly to 7.5.
Origin's strengths lie in our large and growing customer base, our diverse portfolio of assets, and exposure to international growth through our investments in Octopus Energy and Kraken Technologies. We believe these strengths and continued discipline in executing our strategy position us well to keep delivering for the customers and communities we serve and create lasting value for our shareholders. Thank you for attending today and for your continued support of Origin.
Thank you, Frank. Ladies and gentlemen, I now turn to the formal business of today's meeting. It's my duty as chair to ensure that shareholders, as a whole, have a reasonable opportunity to ask questions about or comment on the management of the company, the Remuneration Report, and other items of business before the meeting today. To achieve this, the following procedures for this meeting will be adopted.
Please note that as this is a shareholders' meeting, only holders of Origin shares, their attorneys, proxies, and authorized corporate representatives are entitled to vote and ask questions or make comments on the management and operations of the company. Shareholders watching the webcast via the online platform may also submit their questions online, but will not be able to vote. If you are here as a proxy and have been instructed how to vote, I ask you to ensure that any vote you cast is in accordance with those instructions.
You may also ask questions of the auditor on the conduct of the audits, the preparation and content of the auditor's reports, accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of financial statements, the policies adopted by Origin in relation to the preparation of the sustainability report, or the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit.
If there are any questions of that nature raised today, Mr. Ryan Fisk of EY is available to answer them. I may also direct questions of a more detailed nature to the Chief Executive Officer, Frank Calabria, or the Chief Financial Officer, Tony Lucas, or any other fortunate member of management. However, in the first instance, all questions are to be addressed to me as chair. I can confirm that the external auditor did not receive any written questions from shareholders prior to the meeting. You may either ask questions in the room today or by submitting written questions via the online platform.
If you are attending in person and wish to speak today, please come to the microphone, identify yourself, and state whether you are here as a shareholder or a proxy holder. There are microphones in each aisle, and I'll ask you to put your questions in turn. Please also defer any questions or comments on a specific resolution until that resolution is put to the meeting.
If you are watching the webcast online and wish to ask a question via the online platform, click the messaging tab at the top of the screen. Select the resolution you would like your question to be put to. Type your question into the text box and then select the send icon. You do not have to wait for the resolution to submit your questions online. I encourage you to submit them as soon as possible and will put them to the meeting at the relevant resolution.
For those in the room, if you have questions relating to your personal dealings with Origin as a customer, I ask that you speak with the company's representative, April Attridge, after the meeting. Could April identify herself? Thank you very much, April. For those online, the moderators can take your details and arrange for a customer representative to contact you after the meeting.
In order to allow a reasonable opportunity for all shareholders to ask questions, I will limit shareholders to no more than two questions or comments at a time. If you have more than one question or comment, please ask them together up front and I'll respond to both. I would like to stress that it's not in the interests of this meeting, nor respectful of all the shareholders attending, for questions to be repeated, nor for individual shareholders to dominate proceedings with large numbers of questions. I would like to give all those shareholders wishing to ask a question the opportunity to do so, and therefore won't permit repeated questioning on essentially the same matters. Finally, please ask your questions or raise your comments in a courteous and respectful way.
I now move to the first item on notice of meeting, being the financial report, sustainability report, and the reports of the directors and auditor for the year ended 30 June 2026. These are now laid before the meeting for consideration. Please note this item of business does not require any shareholder vote. I now open the floor for discussion. Are there any questions or comments on these reports or the management of the company? Welcome back, Natasha.
Thank you very much, Chair.
Nice to see you again.
Natasha Lee, shareholder.
Yes.
Of course, I couldn't disappoint you. I had three meetings-
Three meetings in a row.
at the same time today, but I decided, hey, you guys want to see me. Okay. Anyway, thank you for your solid result, that's the Board and the management and staff of Origin.
The first question concerns AI. I suppose there's two parts to this. The first part relates to your AI voice agent, which you say services some 2.5 million customers. I take it that that's based on generative AI, and I was just wondering what the performance is, because I haven't used your AI in any matter, but I know that in the past when you ring up and when you ask a question, you say something and it say something completely different. So I was just wondering how effective it is in actually being able to answer, and especially people with a foreign accent or a disability of some sort, needing to go to a human operator to clarify. The second part of the AI question relates to your general rollout. To what extent is agentic AI being applied throughout the company, and how is that happening?
The second question for now is, the Victorian retail electricity market has shown a decrease, which was quite significant. What are the particular reasons for that decline?
Great. Thank you, Natasha, for those questions. The AI question is obviously a vital one. It's very much front of our mind, and we'll also address your Victorian question as well. In fact, might ask Frank to address the Victorian one.
The first thing I'd say about AI and Origin is that Origin starts the AI journey in a very sound position, in as much as the underpinnings of the location of our data, the cleanliness of the data, the processes sit behind it, have been in place for quite some period of time, which has been the bedrock of our ability to build our VPP, which effectively was, in the early days, machine learning to orchestrate several hundred thousand devices to shift power throughout the day in order to optimize power usage. We start with a high degree, I think, of machine learning and data analytics capability in Origin.
When it comes to AI deployment, we've been cautious, been careful to ensure that both from a data perspective, choice of partner, the right use cases for us to focus on, that they were deployed in a manner that would enable us to test and learn and ramp up over time. That's exactly what we've done with our customer service agent that is now handling multiples of the original customer volumes and has been increased over time, and the feedback we're getting is very, very positive.
You raised an interesting point on accents. That was one of the early problems we had with different people of different age groups and different primary languages, all had to be interpreted by the agent. But we've managed to fine-tune that and continue to increase performance. We're also seeing it help us with compliance as well, because it might just be that a customer rings us and fails to disclose a particular detail of their account, but that detail might be quite important, and that detail might be in their records in terms of prior bills, prior conversations, and AI enables us to flag any compliance or any, for example, with a life support customer or any other customers needing particular help or support, we're able to be almost doubly sure that we can identify that customer and treat that customer in the appropriate way with the use of AI.
I think we're all in the very reasonably early stages of AI, but we are methodically rolling it out where we're comfortable that there is a real productivity case. It's always customer first. Are we trying to solve a customer problem, and improving the customer experience? I think you'll see it more pervasively employed in Australian communities, but also at Origin for the benefit of our customers. Let me now turn to Victorian performance, Frank, if you wouldn't mind.
Yeah. In terms of the Victorian market, and probably the broader National Electricity Market on the East Coast, but most pronounced in Victoria, you've seen very benign conditions over the last year. You've seen high coal reliability and the introduction of batteries. The introduction of batteries, as you know, it enables to manage on many day-to-day scenarios the utilization of the power that's in the middle of the day and the evening peak. High coal availability and those conditions, the combination of all of those has meant that the market has been very well supplied.
That's been a phenomenon across the market. The reason you see it more pronounced in Victoria is the extent of brown coal plant that's running really base load over the full day. So it's a very well-supplied market. Without any of those other events that might spike demand, if I could use that expression, what you're seeing is that that's meant that overall wholesale prices have been lower. What we have seen over recent weeks, just to highlight what can happen in the market, probably more so in New South Wales, is that as people are anticipating a very hot summer, and there have been risk events and higher temperatures, what we've seen is that's changed a little bit in the market over the last couple of weeks. But overall, that's the reason why Victoria's down quite a bit in wholesale prices.
Right. Thank you. Just going back to you, Scott.
Yes.
Yeah. What you said about AI, that seemed to be primarily about generative AI, and I can understand sort of the history and the progression. Every company's moving, whether you say it's on a treadmill or on the escalator on AI. Specifically agentic AI, how far is Origin on that journey, and how do you plan to roll that out?
Yeah, so interestingly the Board, at our last Board meeting, spent some time down with the Melbourne retail team, Jon's team, looking at how agents are actually being deployed already in order to smooth the customer journey, improve compliance. I think we also expect a world where more customers will be deploying their own agents to help them choose the best plans and the best provider. We're certainly entering a world, and you'll have seen recent developments with Muse, with OpenAI and Dots, with Instinct. These are all new customer agents that are entering the market, and we have to be absolutely prepared for that with the right set of products, the right customer understanding, the right attributes that assure that Origin remains the preferred supplier in an agentic world.
Right. Okay. Yeah, because the major productivity gains can be made through the correct application of agentic AI, and it's important you. It's important for every company to sort of get that right and apply.
Yes.
Okay.
Absolutely.
Thank you for now.
Be disappointed we don't see you again next year, Natasha. Thank you.
I'll try my best.
Good on you. Any other questions on this section of today's AGM? Sir, please.
Thank you. My name's William Prentice, and I'm a shareholder. I've got just a couple of questions. I'll just ask one, and if someone's got something else to say, that's fine. I'm just wondering how you balance all the pressures on your cash flow, and that's between you could do it in future growth, you could reduce your debt or increase your dividends. There's probably other things that I haven't thought of. I'm just wondering how you do that, how you balance that, and whether with your dividends, is there any potential for growth in your dividends, and what sort of conditions would that require? Can I ask a second question?
Please. Yeah. Please.
The second question, a fairly simple question, is that you've got some major investments in various things, and I guess you did feasibilities on them, and you worked out what sort of returns you expect. Where those major investments that you are doing have deviated from the original base case scenarios, what do you do? Are you prepared to sell them? Are you prepared to step back and say, "Oh, we're not putting any more money into these things?" I know there's some really major investments that you've got. How do you assess what sort of return that you would accept from those?
Thank you. Two great questions. In terms of the dividend payout, we would love to be able to be increasing our dividend over time. Clearly, that's a hallmark over the long haul of a company that's doing the right thing. We have a dividend payout policy that reflects the balance that you rightly pointed to. When we consider our dividend policy and the absolute amount of that payout, it is going to be impacted by what returns we have for projects that require us to reinvest in the business, as well as the year-to-year operating profits and cash flow we generate from operating the business. We're always thinking about both things, how we can run Origin better and how we can grow.
In recent years, you've seen quite significant CapEx funded from free cash flow, principally into acquisition of our shares in Octopus Energy, which have obviously been very significant from a value creation perspective, and also our battery program, as part of 1.8 GW being the size of the total program. If you look at both of those, we absolutely expect those to earn risk-adjusted returns higher than the cost of capital that is intrinsic with a project of that risk.
To the second part of your question, it's a very important part of the board's role and the investment committee's role that Frank and the management team run to look back and examine the actual performance compared to business case of all of our major projects. We call these PIRs, post-investment reviews. They regularly come to the board on major projects so that we can actually see, well, this is what we thought was going to happen. This has happened. What can we learn from that? How can we continue to refine and improve our investment decision-making?
The final element of your question is, again, a good one in as much as there will be situations where certain assets or projects, and we've made recently a decision in respect of one wind project, not Yanco Delta Wind Farm, but another one, where actually on the basis of current information and new information, because things do change, especially in energy, as you're all intimately familiar with, it no longer makes sense to pursue the project, or we may conclude there's a higher and better owner of the project.
We're constantly assessing these questions, how to grow, how to invest, holding ourselves to account in terms of the investments that we make, and asking ourselves whether we are, as Origin, the best and highest value owner of any part of our portfolio. Thank you for the question. Are there any other questions on this part of- Nat asha.
Yeah, Natasha Lee again. Just a couple of quick ones. Your Integrated Gas fugitive emissions showed an increase from 290 kilotons of CO2 equivalent from 246 kilotons from last year. I understand that there can be fluctuations. Was there particular reasons for that increase and I suppose the longer-term trajectory of that? The second question, which is a bit of a hypothetical, is the government's draft 20% reserve on gas, understanding that it is a draft and you're probably still working through. Do you want to comment about how you see the implications? From what I understand, it should be less difficult for this company to manage that than some of the others, but just some initial thoughts on that matter?
Yes. I'll initially handle that and the fugitive emissions question, but also invite you, if you wanted to go into any deeper detail, Aleta Nicoll here at the front. Aleta, if you could just identify yourself, would, I'm sure, be delighted to take you through with a bit more detail. There's no significant incident, there's no change in operating procedures. It was just sort of year in, year out how the plant operated that it led to that small increase in fugitive emissions. This is an issue that comes to the board and is dealt with at the sustainability committee principally as we examine what's the best technology of measuring fugitive emissions, how our plant performs to global benchmarks, what our CapEx program does in terms of effectively stopping wasted gas. We've got a real incentive to make sure that fugitive emissions are low in APLNG.
Which is the reason why if you ever get the chance to go to Curtis Island, not that many people do, you go out there, and you see one enormous decision that Origin made. In contrast to the other plants on Curtis Island, we made a decision to adopt a pit-based flaring regime for necessary emissions that has cost us, was a significantly higher CapEx item, but results in much lower fugitive emissions and much lower disruptions to local communities. We always are thinking about if we need to have fugitive emissions, how we manage them, the pit-based approach, better measurement, and CapEx that over time will reduce it. Frank, I wonder whether you could comment on the latest on gas policy, which is a live matter.
Yes, there could well be further announcements today or tomorrow in relation to the domestic gas reservation. Firstly, we want a very well-functioning gas market. I'd said earlier in my speech, we certainly want a gas price that's conducive to manufacturing and firming electricity. At the same time, we want that price to provide an incentive for investment in future gas production in Australia. Probably my main comments regarding the design of that scheme is that it's equitable amongst participants. It's fair to say that Australia Pacific LNG, the producer in our portfolio, is producing quite a lot of gas and supplying a lot of gas to the domestic market and can meet that commitment. You're right to make the comment that we can meet that.
What is important is that the design of the scheme and a couple of key features right now is it for sale? What is the level of oversupply in the market, and do we have confidence in that design? That is what we have been advocating now to make sure that that operates equitably across the market. The design of that is quite important because it is currently set at an oversupplied market of around 10%, so how that works in practice is very important in terms of its efficacy and our support for it. So we have been advocating to make sure that that operates well. But shareholders should be aware that APLNG is certainly a very significant supplier to the domestic market today and meets a commitment.
Okay. No, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Just fine.
There are no more questions in the room. I will now turn to the online questions.
Chair, we have a number of questions online on this item. The first question is from Fabian Conan. Please can we get some comments on the impending Victorian court class action?
Sorry, could you repeat the question?
Yes, Chair. Please can we get some comments on the impending Victorian court class action?
Yes. As that is a matter before the courts, it would be entirely inappropriate for me to comment on it, other than to say that we will be vigorously defending those claims.
Chair, the next question is from Stephen Mayne. The question is in two parts. The first part is Ernst & Young replaced PwC as our auditor in 2019 and presumably has not faced a competitive tender during its first six-year run. Given that U.K. law now mandates audit tenders every 10 years, will the audit committee chair or Scott Perkins commit to running an audit tender before 2029? The second part, Chair, is also could EY signing partner Ryan Fisk comment on how much of his Origin Energy time this year was spent auditing our first AASB S2 climate-related disclosures sustainability report?
Thank you, Stephen, for the question. Just to correct one matter, EY, in fact, replaced KPMG, not PwC. We are aware of the U.K. law. It's obviously not the law in Australia, so I won't be committing to anything in public about running an audit tender in 10 years. However, what shareholders should draw comfort from is that we expect extremely high levels of performance from our auditors, and we're pleased to get that from Ernst & Young. That performance is validated and verified by surveys of their performance conducted within the audit committee, and there is a strong commitment to continuous improvement, openness, and feedback that the board shares with Ernst & Young to ensure that we get not only great service but also deployment of latest technology and great value for money when the audit fees, as they do, come up every year for review.
We also maintain, I think, a high degree of scrutiny on all other expenses that pertain to Ernst & Young. There is always a smaller minority element of non-audit services that are reviewed by the board as well. So I think the overarching question is, are we getting the right kind of quality and value from our auditors? We believe we are. Of course, we will consider audit tenders, frankly, at any point in time, not just at 10 years or longer, and those will be conducted when we think is appropriate for Origin. But thank you for your question.
Ryan, I might actually pass this question to you as I can't comment on your time allocation as per the shareholder's question.
Thank you, Chair, I do not have access to my time sheets here either. But look, as everyone can imagine, we spent a significant amount of time on the ASRS audits the first time through. It is circa 15% of the total hours that we committed to the audit this year, and my time would have been comparable with that.
Thank you for the question.
The final online question, Chair, on this item from Arthur Mangos: Why are rebates for solar-generated power so low? Should they be higher?
Yeah. Thank you for the question. This is an understandable one we get from shareholders who are seeking to, if you like, reinject their surplus energy in the Energy Markets in the middle of the day. The reality is that Australia has, I think, still, if not number one, correct me if I am wrong, Frank, the highest penetration globally of rooftop solar anywhere.
So what has happened is in the middle of the day, there is a surplus of power, and that surplus of power is now the reason why we have such an active battery, a vibrant battery deployment in Australia in both grid scale and at home. The implication of there being a surplus of supply, not enough demand in the middle of the day, is that solar feed-in tariffs have, over time, fallen, and that's why the rates that you might have been familiar with some time ago are no longer market price. Thank you for the question.
Okay, we do note that a vote to receive or adopt these accounts reports is not required, and so I will now move to the remaining items of business. Voting on each of these remaining items of business for consideration at today's meeting will be determined by means of a poll. Boardroom, the company share registrar, will be the returning officer for the purpose of the poll. The persons who are entitled to vote on this poll are all shareholders, representatives, and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders, except those precluded by operation of law or listing rule, as set out in the notice of meeting and explanatory notes.
Like we have in prior years, we will be using electronic devices to vote on all resolutions. While many of you have used these devices before, I will now provide some brief instructions on how to vote. First, please ensure that the smart card you received on registering today is inserted correctly into the device. Place your smart card into the top of the handset, making sure that the arrows at the bottom of the smart card are inserted and facing towards you. A welcome message and your name will appear when the card is inserted correctly.
When I open voting shortly, your device will become active, and instructions will appear in the device screen. You may use the blue, green, and red buttons to navigate through the screens. Voting options will appear on the screen. Select button one to vote for, select button two to vote against, or select button three to abstain and withhold your vote. Once you have voted, confirmation that your vote has been received will also appear on the screen. You can also cancel or change your vote at any of the items by following the prompts on the screen before the poll is closed towards the end of the meeting.
If you are here as a proxy holder, you should vote using the handset device in respect of any open votes that are available to you. If you are voting in more than one capacity, for example, as a shareholder and a proxy holder, you can use the same handset. Your smart card will contain all eligible voting shares in each capacity. If you wish to abstain from voting, you should select the abstain option on your handset.
I advise that, subject to the voting exclusions set out in the notice of meeting on a poll, every member who is present in person or by proxy, attorney, or representative will have one vote for each share held by him or her. As set out in the notice of meeting, I intend to cast any available undirected proxies held by me as chair in favor of all the resolutions. If you require assistance in submitting your vote, please raise your hand and the staff from Boardroom will come to you to assist you.
I will now open the poll for voting and move to the remaining items of business. Your handsets should now be activated, and you may submit your votes at any time in case you need to leave the meeting early, but we encourage all of you to stay for the discussion and to ask any questions. If you wish to leave early, please submit your votes on the electronic device and return it to the registry staff as soon as you exit the room. As we move through the relevant items of business, I will give you the opportunity to cast your votes using the handset. I will also give you a final opportunity to cast your votes if you haven't done so before I close the poll towards the end of the meeting.
Director re-election process. This process for the nomination of directors standing for re-election and election involves an assessment by the board of the relevant director's skills and expertise and his or her performance and contribution to the work of the board during their term, and in particular, over the last 12 months. The results of this assessment form the basis of the board's recommendation to shareholders. Because this year I am a candidate offering myself for re-election, I will hand over the Chair to Ilana Atlas, Chair of the Remuneration, People and Culture Committee, to chair this resolution. Thank you, Ilana.
Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everybody. Scott joined the board of the company in September 2015 and was appointed Chair in October 2020. Scott was last re-elected in 2024, two years ago. He is standing for re-election at this AGM because no director is otherwise due to stand for re-election, and the ASX listing rules and the company's constitution require there to be a director election or re-election each year. Scott is Chair of the Nominations Committee and a member of the Risk and Audit Committee, also a member of the Remuneration, People and Culture Committee and the Safety and Sustainability Committee.
The board, with Scott absent, unanimously recommends his re-election. In making its unanimous recommendation, amongst other things, the board considered Scott's performance and his independence. The board's view is that Scott is a high-performing Chair and Director and is an outstanding leader of the board. Scott brings to the board extensive experience in governance roles with large Australian corporations, as well as his experience in corporate strategy. The board's judgment is that there is significant value to shareholders in Scott continuing as Chair for a further term because of his excellent performance in the role, his deep knowledge of Origin, and the benefit of continuity as the board enters another period of renewal.
In considering Scott's independence as a Director, the board reviewed a number of factors, including the terms of the board charter and his behavior as Chair. It was particularly focused on his relationship with management and other Directors and ensuring those relationships included constructive challenge when appropriate. The board had external assistance in conducting this review. The board concluded that Scott is independent. Details of Scott's biographical information are set out in the notice of meeting. The board, with Scott absent, unanimously recommends his re-election. I invite Scott to speak to his re-election.
That's a weight off our minds. That actually worked, didn't it? Thank you, Ilana, and good morning again, fellow shareholders. It is both a privilege and a responsibility to serve you as your Chairman of Origin. Since I was appointed Chairman in 2020, my primary focus has been to ensure the board provides both the appropriate oversight of, and support for, the management team as it executes Origin's strategy. It has been reassuring in recent years to see consistent improvement in Origin's execution reflected in sustained share price appreciation. Getting energy right for our customers, community, and planet guides us as we navigate an energy transition that is proving more challenging than many expected. This requires us to be nimble in navigating near-term market volatility while holding firm to our longer-term convictions as we allocate capital to generate returns well into the future.
Increasingly, it's policy rather than economics that is guiding the pace and shape of the transition. The decisions we face in this context draw upon my experience as a company Chairman and Director and my experience in corporate strategy and capital markets. Strategy, capital structure, and capital allocation are constantly in focus as we weigh both the risks and opportunities. Looking ahead, I remain optimistic about Origin's prospects. Our portfolio is unique. The scale of our customer base, the role of our gas peaking assets will play, the energy management expertise we have built for ourselves and our customers, our investment in Octopus, and the cash flows generated by our investment in APLNG.
The proof will be the results, steadily growing shareholder value for you all. I have the time, capacity, and energy to commit to Origin on this journey. During this term, working with the board, I also envisage orderly chair succession to take place. Together with my board colleagues and our management team, I believe we share the determination to realize Origin's full potential. Thank you for your support. I look forward to continuing to serve your best interests in the coming years. I hand back to Ilana.
As you can see, we have a very diverse board in terms of heights. Thanks, Scott. Is there anyone who wishes to speak to the motion? Are there any questions in the room? No? Natasha.
Good day. I'm Natasha Lee, shareholder. No, thanks, Scott. I'm happy to endorse you for my somewhat small vote in relation to the total shareholdings. It probably goes without saying, but I think you've done an excellent job.
Thank you. Are there any questions online?
Chair, there is one question online on this item. A question from Stephen Mayne. Origin Energy is running a premature AGM because nominations for the board closed on August 11, but you only released the full year results on August 13. Shareholders should be informed how the directors have performed for the year before nominations close, and the board should undertake to delay future AGMs, as very few public companies do this. Will the Chair, who is the only director up for election this year, undertake to slightly delay next year's AGM so that board nominations close after our 123,859 shareholders are informed about the performance of the incumbent directors?
Thanks, Stephen, for the question. Do you want to respond, Scott, or do you want me to?
I am happy to respond. Thank you. Stephen, we are happy to take this one online. I appreciate there is a bunch of logistical challenges that we face with actually the way in which we have scheduled both our AGM and our board meetings and availability of results. Can you leave this with me and Helen Hardy, our Company Secretary, will come back to you specifically on this matter. Thank you.
Thanks, Scott. Are there any further questions?
None online, Chair.
Thank you. If there are no more questions, you will see the screen behind me shows how shareholders have directed proxy votes be cast, and you will see that 94.88% of the votes have been cast in favor of the motion. Undirected proxies held by me as Chair will be cast in favor of the motion. As indicated earlier, voting on the resolution will be by means of a poll. Please now vote on your electronic device. I now hand back to Scott to chair the remaining items of business for the meeting. Thank you. Thanks, Scott.
Thank you, Ilana. Let me move to Resolution 3, the adoption of the Remuneration Report. The next item of business on this agenda is to adopt this Remuneration Report of the company. The disclosures in the Remuneration Report focus on the company's policy for setting director and executive remuneration and the actual amounts paid to directors and key executives for the year just passed. While the vote on the Remuneration Report is non-binding and advisory only, as we have not done in prior years, we will take into account any comments from shareholders and the outcome of the vote when considering the future remuneration arrangements of the company.
Our remuneration framework is designed to support the company's strategy and to reward our people for its successful execution. It is designed around three principles to attract and retain talent, pay fairly, and balance short and long-term value considerations. We balance performance metrics which are within management's control and those which are not, but which materially influence our shareholders' experience. We ensure our focus on long-term decision making is reflected in the choice of short-term metrics and long-term measures of success consistent with that focus. We reviewed the balance of fixed versus at-risk remuneration and undertook comprehensive benchmarking to ensure competitive levels of remuneration opportunity. As our strategy develops, so too will elements of the remuneration framework to ensure alignment.
The Remuneration, People and Culture Committee continues to test the remuneration framework against these objectives. We review various alternative structures, engage openly with our major shareholders, proxy advisors, and remuneration experts, and seek to simplify and refine the framework in line with changing industry conditions. The directors recommend you vote in favor of adopting the Remuneration Report. I now move that the Remuneration Report be adopted. Is there anyone who wishes to speak on the motion? If there are no questions on the motion, I will now turn to online questions.
Chair, there is one online question on this item. A question from Stephen Mayne. Thank you for introducing live online questions this year, and well done for maintaining your long excellent practice of disclosing the proxies to the ASX early, along with the formal addresses. Premature AGMs aside, you are getting very close to AGM best practice.
Please stop there, Stephen. That is all. That is fine.
To achieve this, you just need to embrace headcount disclose in the poll results. How many shareholders voted by proxy on this Remuneration Report item, and what was the sentiment amongst smaller retailer shareholders? Did more than 1,000 vote against?
Stephen, I don't have that information at hand, but again, we'll speak to Helen Hardy, our Company Secretary, and we will come back to you. Thank you for the question.
On the screen, I now show how shareholders have directed that proxy votes be cast. You'll see that 98.10% of votes have been cast in favor of the motion. I will vote available undirected proxies held by me in favor of the motion. Voting on this resolution will be by means of a poll. Please now vote on your electronic device.
Let me move to Resolution 4, Equity Grants to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Frank Calabria. The next item of business involves the granting of performance rights and restricted shares under the company's long-term incentive plan to CEO and Managing Director, Frank Calabria. If this resolution is passed, the performance rights and restricted rights will be granted shortly after today's meeting, but will only deliver value to Frank in future years if service and vesting conditions are achieved as set out in the notice of meeting and the Remuneration Report.
These awards are a part of the at-risk amounts of Frank's remuneration, designed to align his interests with those of shareholders. Further details of these awards and their terms are set out in the notice of meeting and the R emuneration Report. The Directors, other than Frank, recommend that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 4. I will now put the award of equity incentives to the meeting. The matter is now open for discussion. Are there any questions? If there are no questions in the room, I will now turn to online questions.
There is one online question on this item, Chair, from Stephen Mayne. Could our long-serving CEO, Frank Calabria, summarize his past LTI grants as to whether they have vested or lapsed? Also, has he ever sold any ordinary shares in the company or bought any on market without relying on an incentive scheme to build his equity position in the company? Please don't say look it up in the annual report and through ASX announcements. It is complicated, and our extremely numerate CEO could factually summarize the situation in 60 seconds as many other CEOs have done.
I will pass this on to Frank, but I will also very much welcome any feedback we have on ensuring that that question is answered quite simply, because all the information is in the annual report. But Stephen, if you have any feedback that would enable us to answer that question, because it's one that should be able to be answered by looking at the shareholding table. We'll look forward to any feedback you've got. Frank.
Okay. Thanks for the question. Firstly, by way of history, there were eight years leading up to 2020 where there was no LTI vests. Through 2021, 2022, 2023, I think the vests were or 2021 and 2022, those vests were somewhere between 15% or 16% and 35%. Since 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, or through to 2025, they were 100% vest, and in 2026, it has been 92% vests. When I started as CEO, I had just over 100,000 ordinary shares. Today, I have somewhere in excess of 1.6 million shares, so I have accumulated those shares over time. The last several year grants, last couple of years have been in excess of 400,000 that LTI has vested in terms of shares. Prior to that, it was about 274,000, and the year before that was 111,000. As I said, prior to that, there were not many vests for many, many years.
I have sold shares each year over the last several years. The sale of those shares is largely to meet the tax liability in relation to the shares granted to me. In the last 12 months, that would be in excess of 600,000 shares, and the two years prior to that was somewhere in between 200,000 and 300,000 shares. I have been in a situation where clearly I have been accumulating shares in the organization and remain aligned over time. Given the amount of shares that are issued to me, over recent times, I have not bought shares on market outside of the rights that are vested in those shares as they become ordinary shares.
Thank you, Frank, and I will just maybe add one other element to the discussion. Origin has a minimum shareholding requirement, most public companies do, for all the senior executives, for board members. Frank's MSR, his minimum shareholding requirement, is 2.5x his base salary, which is, as I think Stephen, you would know, is amongst the highest of analogous companies. We do ask our executives to have skin in the game. As it stands today, Frank's shareholding is in excess of 9x his base salary, so there is absolutely no shortage of alignment of interests between the CEO's shareholding and shareholders. Thank you for the question.
The screen behind me shows how shareholders have directed the proxy votes be cast. You will see that 98.18% of votes have been cast in favor of the motion. Undirected proxies held by me as the chair will be cast in favor of the motion. As indicated earlier, voting on this resolution will be by means of a poll. Please now vote on your electronic device.
I am hoping that everybody who wishes to vote has entered their selection. If you have not yet entered your vote, please do so now as we will shortly be closing the poll. If you are having difficulty casting your votes, please raise your hand and a member of Boardroom will come and assist you. I now declare the poll closed. I will shortly display the results of all the resolutions put to the meeting today. The results of this poll will also be announced to the ASX. That concludes the formal part of the AGM.
I would like to thank all of my Board colleagues and Frank, the executive leadership team, and the thousands of employees and contractors for their dedication and commitment in the past year. Finally, I would again like to thank shareholders for your ongoing support of Origin and for attending today's meeting. I declare the meeting closed. Refreshments will be served outside. Thank you all very much.