Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Wesfarmers' Annual General Meeting for 2023. My name is Ruth Callaghan, and I will be the moderator for today's meeting. In relation to some housekeeping matters, in the unlikely event of an emergency, you'll be asked to leave the room in an orderly fashion through the exits which are clearly marked around the room. Convention Centre staff will be available to assist you should you need them. If you have not already done so, may I remind you to please switch off your mobile phones? And now, before our chairman, Michael Chaney, commences proceedings, I'd like to begin today by introducing Dr. Richard Walley OAM, to perform a welcome to country on behalf of the traditional owners of this part of Western Australia, the Whadjuk Noongar people. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Walley.
Thank you very much. We ask the good spirit to be with us in this beautiful place we call home, the Whadjuk section of the Noongar language group. We ask the good spirit to give those who are presenting today the ability to articulate your message. Those who receive the message, you have the capacity to pass it on and share it to those who are required. And at the end of this meeting, may the good spirit take each and every one of us safely back home to our families. We'd like to thank you for the respect that we share and stand together with. May the good spirit be with us and keep everyone safe.
Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this meeting. I'm Michael Chaney, the Chairman of Wesfarmers. And I firstly thank Richard Walley for that wonderful welcome to Country. I'm advised that we now have a quorum present, and so I now officially open the 42nd Annual General Meeting of Wesfarmers Limited. And thank you to everyone who's joined today's meeting in person, online, or listening in by phone. We're very pleased again to be hosting a hybrid meeting, where our entire board is here with us in Perth, and we have hundreds of shareholders. It looks to me like almost a thousand shareholders who are here to participate with us, and we have a lot of other shareholders who are participating online.
I'm joining you from the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, and on stage with me today is Rob Scott, our Chief Executive, and Vicki Robinson, our Company Secretary. Also joining us, as I said, are our Board of Directors, and there are three of us standing for re-election today, Sir Bill English, Alan Cransberg, and myself. You'll be hearing from each of us a bit later in the meeting when we'll be seeking your support. But first, I invite all of my director colleagues to stand while I introduce them. First, Vanessa Wallace, our longest-standing director, who joined the board in 2010, and Vanessa will be retiring at next year's AGM. Next to Vanessa is Jennifer Westacott, who's been a board member since 2013.
Then Sir Bill English, who joined the board in 2018, and he's standing, as I said, for re-election today. And next to Bill, Mike Roche, who joined the board in 2019, and Mike's the chairman of the Board's Remuneration Committee. Alongside Mike is Sharon Warburton, the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, and a member of the board since 2019. Next to Sharon is Anil Sabharwal, who joined the board in 2021, and then Alison Watkins, who also joined the board in 2021. And finally, next to Alison is Alan Cransberg, who also joined the board in 2021, and Alan will be standing for re-election today. Thanks very much, directors.
So also, joining us are the group's senior executives, including the managing directors of our divisions, and you've heard from two of them, already this morning, those of you who are in the room. And I welcome them all on your behalf and thank them for their fantastic efforts and the efforts of their teams throughout the last year. Now, as you would have seen, coming into the meeting, all our businesses are well represented here today, and I know how pleased they all are to have been able to demonstrate some of their products and services, outside the meeting.
So if you have any particular matters that you wish to raise, that go to details of their operations, please make contact with them after the formal meeting, 'cause they'll all be outside, where we're having refreshments, and they'll be available to talk to you. We also have in attendance our audit partners, EY, Trevor Hammond and Jemma Newton, who are available to answer any questions on the audit and related matters. Lastly, I extend a special welcome to all of our current team members and also to all former directors, executives, and team members who have joined us here today, and it's been great so far, having the ability to catch up with a few of them.
Now on to some procedural matters, which I'm afraid I have to go through, and I trust you'll bear with me, but it's important that we do get the procedures right. Many of our shareholders have taken the opportunity to submit their voting instructions and questions through the online voting platform, and we thank them in advance for doing so. As outlined in our notice of meeting, shareholders and proxy holders may vote and submit questions during the meeting, either in person or using the Lumi AGM online platform. We've also provided shareholders and others who may not be able to attend in person or participate online to... We've given them the opportunity to listen to the AGM by telephone.
So please, for those people, please note that if you're joining by telephone, you won't have the ability to vote or ask questions. Now, all resolutions will be decided on a poll, and to provide ample opportunity for shareholders and proxy holders, including those participating in this meeting online, to submit their votes, I now open the poll on all resolutions, and I'll provide a reminder to submit any outstanding votes later in the meeting before the poll is closed. Sebastian Erna from Computershare will act as the Returning Officer for the meeting, for the purposes of conducting and determining the results of the poll on each resolution. The results will be announced through the ASX company announcements platform later today, and they'll also be available for those who wish to look at them on the Wesfarmers website.
EY, the company's auditor, will act as scrutineer. Now, we'll play a short video, outlining further procedural matters, which relieves me of the burden of going through them. So please watch the video.
For shareholders and proxy holders eligible to vote at the meeting, who are joining the meeting in person, you will have a voting card, which has a voting paper printed on one side. If you are acting as a proxy and have been directed how to vote, please sign and lodge your blue voting card. If you don't, the vote will default to the chairman as proxy, and the chairman will vote in accordance with the shareholder's instructions. If no instructions have been given regarding a resolution, the chairman will vote in favor of that resolution. When you have completed your vote, please place your voting cards in one of the boxes, which will be handed around by the Computershare representatives at the conclusion of the formal business.
For shareholders and proxy holders who are participating in this AGM online, through the online platform, and who are eligible to vote at this meeting, a voting icon will appear on your device or navigation bar. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options for each resolution: For, Against, or Abstain. There is no need to press Submit or click the Enter button, as your vote will be automatically recorded. You may change your vote during the meeting until the chairman declares the poll closed. If you wish to ask a question, you must be a shareholder or their attorney, proxy, or authorized company representative. These attendees will have the option to ask questions both orally and by submitting them in writing through the online platform.
If your question has already been asked by another shareholder and answered or otherwise addressed during the meeting, please do not ask it again. When the chairman calls for questions, if you're in the room, please proceed to the microphone nearest to you. Show your green, blue, or yellow card and give your name to the attendant, who will introduce you. If you are representing an organization, please state who you represent. You will see that we have microphone points around the room. In order to enable all shareholders a reasonable opportunity to be heard, if you have a number of questions on a particular item of business, please ask them together when you come forward. If you are a shareholder or proxy holder participating in the meeting online, please submit any written questions on any item of business as early as possible during the meeting.
To minimize repetition and to maximize the number of questions that can be responded to during the meeting, written questions submitted through the online platform may be moderated. For example, by amalgamating them into one question or choosing the broadest question, which covers questions on the same topic. As time is limited, it may not be possible to respond to all questions during the meeting, and the chairman may choose to limit the number of questions per person. If that is the case, or if there are questions that might be better addressed on an individual basis, the company will respond to relevant questions after the meeting. When the chairman takes questions on the relevant item of business, written questions submitted online relating to that item will be read by an external moderator to the meeting.
If you are online and wish to ask a question in writing, press or click on the messaging icon, which can be found on the navigation bar on your screen. This will open a new screen. Select the category that relates to your question from the list, then type your question in the Ask a Question box before clicking the arrow to submit. A copy of your submitted questions, along with any written responses from the moderating team, can be viewed by selecting My Messages. If you are online and wish to ask a question orally, click on the Request to Speak button, which can be found in the Broadcast panel. This will pause the webcast. You can check your name is appearing correctly, and then enter the topic of your question. Submit your request and follow the instructions to allow microphone access, then connect to the queue.
You will then listen to the meeting on this page in real time with no delay while waiting to ask your question. When it's time to ask your question, there will be a beep, and you will be asked to proceed with your question. If you are attending the AGM in person and need assistance with how to vote and ask questions during the meeting, please speak to one of the Computershare representatives around the room. If you are participating in the meeting online, a user guide is available on the online platform, as well as on the Annual General Meeting section on the Wesfarmers website. This guide sets out instructions on how to submit your vote and ask questions during the meeting. If you are having any issues with the online platform, please refer to the user guide or call Lumi on the number shown.
Well, I hope you found that video helpful. So please submit your votes any time from now until I close the poll at the end of the formal items of business. Are there any questions about the poll procedure? Fine. Well, consistent with the approach taken at our previous AGMs, we'll respond to questions relating to a particular item of business during discussion on that item, unless those questions, as was said in the video, have already been addressed earlier in the meeting. I'll also answer general questions at the end of the meeting while voting results are being counted. Now, in the interests of all participants, please ensure that your questions are relevant to the resolution being considered and are also relevant to all shareholders.
Written questions submitted online, either before or during the meeting, which are to be put to the meeting, will be read to us by an external moderator, Ruth Callaghan, who you saw first up this afternoon. A number of shareholders submitted questions in advance of the meeting, and several of those questions received cover the same topic. So in those cases, individual questions have been amalgamated into a single question, which we're confident will address the issues raised, and this may also be done for written questions submitted during the meeting. We'll also address a number of the key themes raised in these questions in my address and in Rob's address, and transcripts of those addresses are available on our website and the ASX company announcement platform. A recording of the meeting will be made available on the Wesfarmers website after the meeting.
Now, as you'd be aware, there are four items of business to be discussed when we move into the formal proceedings. But before that, I'm going to make some general observations about the last 12 months and the business environment, and then Rob Scott will provide us with some reflections on current trading and the outlook for the group. Well, I'm pleased to report that despite some external challenges, this year, the Wesfarmers Group overall produced its highest operating profit since the demerger of Coles. Now, I'm sure the challenges that I referred to are well known to all of you. Recent interest rate rises have flowed through to higher bank lending rates, including on home mortgages, and that's seen Australian households needing to manage their budgets more carefully and value becoming more important to customers.
Fortunately, the group is well-positioned with respect to its mix of businesses, and the overall result highlighted the value, I think, of being a conglomerate. As sales slowed in some of our businesses, others compensated with strong results, particularly our Kmart, Chemicals, and Energy, and Fertiliser businesses. Further progress was made to advance the digital e-commerce capabilities of our divisions with the successful launch of OnePass, and I hope all of you are or will be OnePass members. It's our membership program, and for some years, management of our retail businesses, had been focusing on building strong omni-channel capabilities, and that investment is now, supporting this, the, the offerings, strong offerings of our various businesses. Details of the 2023 financial results are in our annual report, and I don't propose to repeat all of that here.
In summary, the group's net profit from continuing operations was a record $2.5 billion, up 4.8% on the prior year. We were pleased to be able to increase our fully franked dividends, which rose 6.1% to $1.91 per share. Now, while the annual financial performance and healthy dividends are important, the main focus of the board and management is on long-term returns, as has been our case since our public listing in 1984. As a listed company, we've always been very clear on our central purpose, namely providing a satisfactory return to you, our shareholders, and that is why, after all, people buy shares or hold shares in Wesfarmers.
Our financial focus has been core to the company's success, with an investment in Wesfarmers providing a return more than 18 x greater than the investment in the ASX All Ordinaries Index since 1984. That means that if you invested $1,500 in the ASX 50 back in 1984, it'd be worth about $ 50,000 now. If you invested the same $1,500 in Wesfarmers shares, it'd be worth just short of $1 million. It's been a tremendously successful period for the company and for our shareholders. That financial focus has ensured that we remain highly disciplined through a range of economic conditions, and it's minimized the danger of empire building, which is, you know, paying too much for an asset that you might like to own.
For a modern corporation, financial success, though, requires more than a singular focus on investment returns. It requires a determination to look after the interests of all stakeholders: our team members, our suppliers, our customers, our communities where we operate, and the environment. It requires a company to be seen as a good corporate citizen, to be recognized as an ethical, principled organization that acts with integrity and can be relied upon to do the right thing by its stakeholders. If we don't do that, good people won't want to work for us, customers won't buy our products, other companies won't invite us into joint ventures, or owners won't sell their businesses to us. It's because our businesses have been so focused on stakeholders that they've developed such strong reputations and produce such outstanding long-term shareholder returns. The two go hand in hand.
Now, recently, there's been some criticism of Wesfarmers' support for the referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice in Australia's Constitution. Well, that support should have come as no surprise to anyone who's followed the company over the years or who understands our ethos. Wesfarmers produced its first Reconciliation Action Plan in 2009, and in 2022, completed its 8th at the highest Elevate level. We employ nearly 4,000 Indigenous team members and have many thousands of Indigenous customers and suppliers. In our last two annual reports, we noted our support for an Indigenous voice in the Constitution, which was evidence of our commitment to these Indigenous stakeholders. Now, we received a number of questions about this prior to today's meeting, and we will have the opportunity to answer those fully in question time.
But in the meantime, let me say that the board and management were very proud to stand up and be counted on that matter, which we saw as important, not only to Indigenous people, but to Australians generally. We see our support of this and many other matters as being aligned to the interests of the company, and with that, to our shareholders. Now, we respect the result of the referendum. The fact that it was not successful does not diminish our determination to do what we can to support reconciliation and the Closing the Gap. Now, of course, actions the board and management take—Thank you very much. Actions that the board and management take to enhance the interests of the company, and thus the long-term interests of shareholders, are fundamental to our success, but they're not the whole picture.
Wesfarmers' interests are also influenced by matters outside our control, like geopolitics and exchange rates and interest rates, and the decisions of government. In this year's annual report, I outlined our concerns about the federal government's proposed changes to Australia's industrial relations laws. If anything, those concerns have been heightened over the last few months. The lengthy Industrial Relations Closing the Loopholes Bill recently tabled by the government fundamentally rewrites Australia's employment landscape, introducing complexity and uncertainty and cost at exactly the wrong time for our economy. We're very concerned by many aspects of the bill.
One example is the proposed change to casual employment, in introducing a new ambiguous definition and making it harder for businesses like ours to offer casual work, which has always been core to Australia's employment landscape.... As a large employer of casual team members, we know casual work suits people who need flexibility and that those team members value the higher hourly rates. Wesfarmers employs around 50,000 casuals across its businesses, and when we ask them, the overwhelming majority choose to remain as casuals. Regrettably, the government's proposal would mostly impact on young people still in education, working parents with responsibilities, team members with a disability, and those easing into retirement, and for people doing it tough, for whom casual hours are often a secondary source of income. Now, as others have noted, the proposed changes will result in fewer jobs and lower wages for Australian workers.
The administrative burden on employers of implementing and keeping up with the changes would inevitably lead to a reduction in job opportunities, casual and permanent, as businesses take steps to mitigate risks that would arise from the changes. Now, like many other organizations, we've sought to highlight our concerns to the government, including concerns about the uncertainty and complexity and cost, which will impact employers and ultimately deprive team members of flexibility and higher pay rates. As proposed, the bill needs a very substantial rework, and we urge the government to engage business and employer groups to understand its unintended consequences and the adverse impact it can have on national prosperity. The independent and highly regarded Productivity Commission constantly reminds us that improvements to national productivity are at the heart of Australia's future prosperity.
Without that, the economy will languish and go backwards, fewer jobs will be created, and governments will be constrained in providing the sort of services that all of us have come to expect. Similarly, Wesfarmers' future prosperity also relies on us realizing further productivity improvements. Now, as I expressed in the annual report, our hope would be that when contemplating any major changes, governments would engage deeply with all stakeholders, including businesses, to assess the wider effects and the unintended consequences of their proposals, and also to consider them through a productivity lens. In the meantime, of course, we take decisions on matters that are within our control, two of which are maintaining a strong balance sheet and making sure we have a very strong board and management team, and I believe shareholders can be confident on both of those matters.
Now, in closing, I pay tribute to our outstanding management team, led so capably by Rob Scott, and to every one of our 120,000 team members. It's been a challenging year, and they've all given their huge efforts and their best to achieve the company's success. On this occasion, I'd particularly like to acknowledge the contribution of our Company Secretary, Vicki Robinson, who retires after this meeting today. Vicki's been with the company for over 20 years, predominantly as a lawyer in our legal team and recently in her current role, and she's really done a superb job, and she retires. You retire, Vicki, with our sincere gratitude and thanks. I'd also like to welcome Sheldon Renkema, who will be taking over from Vicki as Company Secretary. Where are you, Sheldon? There's Sheldon down there.
He's been with the company for over 16 years, mainly in the legal team, but more recently as Head of Business Development in our Chemicals, Energy and Fertiliser business. We think that with our strong portfolio of diversified, growing businesses, our strong balance sheet, and our dedicated team, Wesfarmers' future looks bright. So I'd now like to invite Rob to deliver his Managing Director's address. Thanks, Rob.
Well, thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Richard, for your Welcome to Country. As our Chairman said, it was pleasing to again report a strong set of results for the year, demonstrating the strength of our operating model and the quality of the group's portfolio. The earnings growth delivered by our divisions in 2023 is also a testament to the efforts of our team members in Australia, New Zealand, and across Asia. Wesfarmers has emerged stronger from the disruptions we experienced through the COVID period. In what was the first year since 2019 without trading restrictions, our businesses benefited from more normal operating conditions. Recent developments, such as rising interest rates and elevated inflation, together with changes in economic conditions, necessitated various operational responses through 2023.
These conditions have continued into 2024 financial year, and in many ways, we see this as an environment that plays to Wesfarmers' strengths. As cost of capital increases, businesses that have a genuine competitive advantage and that are executing well will shine. This environment also benefits companies with strong balance sheets and allows disciplined allocators of capital, such as Wesfarmers, to take advantage of investment opportunities within our existing businesses and externally. Our chairman spoke to the group's financial performance in his address, and you can find further details in our annual report. But today, I'd like to focus on operational and strategic highlights for the year and provide an update on recent trading and areas of future focus.
At our strategy briefing day in May this year, and during our recent results announcement, I spoke about the group's portfolio of high-quality businesses that provide a mix of both resilience and growth characteristics, and why this gives us confidence as we look to the future. This year, our retail businesses benefited from their strong value credentials on everyday products, at a time when households and businesses are focusing on balancing their budgets. We know that our commitment to low prices helps these businesses be successful, delivering a win for customers and for shareholders. Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks achieved earnings growth while retaining their price positioning and once again demonstrated the capacity to grow by meeting changing customer expectations and in moving into new categories and ranges.
Now, recent developments that highlight the growth opportunities for our retail businesses include the successful launch of Bunnings' pet range, and unfortunately, in WA, we only have a few stores that offer that, given regulations. But it's also worth noting the very strong business-to-business growth offerings within Bunnings and Officeworks, and also the global distribution opportunities for Kmart's homegrown Anko range. We're also benefiting from proactive investment in productivity and efficiency initiatives, including projects to modernize our supply chains, digitize our operating processes, and increasingly using artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve our businesses. As customer expectations in the retail sector continues to evolve, our businesses are supported by strong omni-channel capabilities. Last month, we added new benefits to our OnePass membership program that the chairman spoke about earlier.
With OnePass, members receive free delivery on eligible items, earn 5 x Flybuys points when shopping in store, and have access to express click and collect, and to 365 change of mind returns, all for just $ 4 a month. If you're not already a OnePass member, I encourage you to visit the friendly team outside, and they'd be happy to sign you up for a free trial. It was also a pleasing year for our industrial businesses, which play critical roles supporting some of Australia's key export industries. With strategic manufacturing assets in Chemicals and Fertilisers, their reliability and focus on operating efficiency and safety helped them to deliver another strong financial performance. Now, as always, the group has maintained its focus on long-term value creation, and this means investing for the future with a disciplined approach to capital allocation..
Having established new platforms for growth, attention is now firmly on execution. In lithium and health, as you heard about earlier, both sectors that will benefit from strong demand in the decade ahead. It's just over four years since we acquired our interest in the Mount Holland Lithium project, and our joint venture business, Covalent Lithium, has now completed construction and commenced commissioning of the mine and concentrator. During the last month, we produced our first spodumene concentrate, and the focus of commissioning is now increasing product recovery rates, paving the way for first sales in the second half of this financial year. At Kwinana, construction of the refinery to convert spodumene to a higher-value product is progressing, with first hydroxide sales expected in the first half of calendar year 2025. As the lithium market globally develops, we expect to see further volatility in pricing.
Our high-quality resource and low-cost structure provides us with confidence that Covalent Lithium will deliver satisfactory returns to shareholders under a range of scenarios and can provide additional value through incremental expansion opportunities. During the year, our health division marked its first anniversary under Wesfarmers' ownership, and the transformation plan for this division is well progressed. We've made investments in supply chain and technology, improved operational processes, and made some key leadership appointments, and there's still much more work that is required to realize the potential of our investment and to deliver financial improvements over the next few years. You may have seen that Wesfarmers Health has also completed the acquisition of a digital health business, InstantScripts, Australia's largest telehealth provider, and we're also progressing a proposal to acquire the medical aesthetics business, Silk Laser Australia.
As always, we continue to evaluate a number of investment opportunities within and adjacent to our divisions. Wesfarmers has several expansion opportunities under evaluation that are expected to generate attractive returns to shareholders, while also supporting global decarbonization and the energy transition. I'd now like to turn to our team and people, our greatest asset. As a large employer with around 120,000 team members, Wesfarmers has long recognized the benefits of maintaining a diverse workforce, and our leadership team, our board, and our overall workforce remains in gender balance. The group also remains at indigenous employee employment parity, and increasingly, we're turning our focus to supporting the career development of our indigenous leaders. You'll recall that last year, our eighth Reconciliation Action Plan was awarded the highest elevate status and set more ambitious targets for the group.
For Wesfarmers, we continue to focus on education, employment, career progression, health, and developing Indigenous businesses, also Indigenous arts and culture, and the community. The national discussion over recent months has highlighted consensus around a common goal, which is to do better as a nation and to deliver practical measures that address the entrenched disadvantage we see with many Indigenous Australians across the country. It's important that we don't lose sight of this goal. We're proud of the progress we've made across Wesfarmers, but we recognize that there is more to do. As one of the largest employers of Indigenous Australians, with businesses that are deeply connected to most communities, we will not shy away from our leadership role in closing the gap. Now, turning to recent trading across the group.
As noted at our full year results, elevated inflation and higher interest rates continue to impact demand in parts of the Australian economy. Households with high levels of mortgage debt relative to income are feeling the greatest pressure. In this environment, the strong value credentials and the core everyday offer of our retail businesses positions them well to meet changing customer demand, acquire new customers, and to profitably grow our market share. Cost of doing business pressures remain elevated, driven by inflation, labor market constraints, higher wage costs, and higher energy costs as well, and also, we are mindful of the cost pressures associated with the lower Australian dollar. To manage these pressures, Wesfarmers' larger businesses are continuing to leverage their scale and sourcing capabilities, and all businesses maintain a very strong focus on productivity investments to improve the efficiency of our operations.
Now, Australia is also not immune to the risks to the global economy and geopolitical disputes, which can have unexpected implications for markets and costs to businesses. Trading performance for the first 16 weeks of the 2024 financial year has generally continued in line with the update we provided at our full year results in August. Bunnings sales growth remains in line with the second half of 2023 financial year, with growth continuing in both commercial and consumer segments. While consumers continue to demonstrate a degree of caution in making big ticket purchases, demand for products that support necessary repair and maintenance and smaller scale projects remains robust, and Bunnings has seen increased foot traffic to stores through the year to date.
Strong financial results have continued in the Kmart Group as the division benefits from the market-leading value credentials of its Anko products, which are starting to resonate with an increasingly wide cross-section of households. With many customers remaining focused on how to manage cost of living pressures, Kmart is well positioned to extend its low price leadership and to profitably grow its share of consumer spending. Officeworks sales for the year to date are broadly in line with the prior corresponding period. The cost of doing business pressures that I've talked about have increased in Officeworks through the year to date, and Officeworks continues its focus on delivering productivity and efficiency benefits to mitigate some of these pressures. Operating losses in Catch have continued to improve through the year to date, as the business makes progress on changing its range, its cost structure, to support a more profitable proposition.
Turning to our industrial businesses, and as discussed, this financial year, we expect to see the first earnings and cash flows generated from the lithium business. In the Chemicals, Energy, and Fertiliser division, strong operating results have continued, but operating earnings are expected to be significantly lower this year due to lower global ammonia prices and higher Western Australian gas costs. The Industrial and Safety division has recorded solid revenue growth for the year to date, but with earnings impacted by ongoing margin and cost pressures. In the health division, sales growth in Priceline has been supported by continued demand for health and beauty products. The sales have moderated in the wholesale business and Clear Skincare. The division's earnings have been impacted by accelerated investment in our transformation activities, the recent PBS changes, and integration costs associated with acquisitions.
So in closing, I wanted to thank you all for the privilege of leading Wesfarmers. While overall economic continue, conditions continue to present both opportunities and challenges, I'm confident that Wesfarmers is well positioned for the current environment and for the long term. I'm pleased with how our portfolio is positioned, providing us with a great platform for value creation through, through a balance of both resilience and growth. Our balance sheet is strong, providing flexibility to invest in our existing businesses and to pursue transactions that create value for shareholders over the long time. I want to give a special thanks to our team members across the group, and to also recognize our group leadership team for the commitment they show to our corporate objective together with their teams and businesses. And thank you to our board for their continued advice and support.
I'll now hand back to the chairman.
Well, thank you, Rob. And now on to the formal business of the meeting. I refer to the minutes of the 41st annual general meeting of the company, held on 27 October last year. I've reviewed the minutes and have signed them as a true and correct record of the meeting. Now, those minutes are available for inspection at the shareholder registration desks and the company's registered office. As I mentioned earlier, voting on all resolutions today will be carried out by a poll. All resolutions are ordinary resolutions requiring a majority of the shareholders who vote on that resolution. Whereas as chairman of the meeting, I've been nominated as a proxy, I intend to vote all undirected and available proxies in favor of the resolutions.
There are also, voting restrictions, on some resolutions, as outlined in the notice of meeting, which apply to those who have an interest in the resolutions, and certain of their related parties. Now, a reminder that if you're having any issues casting your vote or submitting a question, please speak to a Computershare representative, if you're attending in person, or if you're participating online, please refer to the user guide on the Wesfarmers website or call Lumi on the number that's shown on the slide. The proxy votes and direct votes that have been submitted in advance of the meeting will be set out on the slide shown for each resolution, and I'll be providing details of the percentage, for the benefit of those listening to this meeting through the, telephone line.
As I mentioned earlier, the final results of the poll on each resolution will be available on the ASX company announcements platform and also on the Wesfarmers website later today. So I'll now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The notice of annual general meeting was distributed to shareholders on Friday, the 22nd of September, 2023. I'll now take this notice as read. We'll now proceed with the items of business listed in the order that they were in the notice of meeting, and for each item of business, we'll display the wording of the relevant resolution on the slides. Now, for those meeting listening to the meeting on the telephone, please refer to your notice of meeting for the relevant wording.
The first item is to receive and consider the financial statements and the reports of the directors and the auditor for the year ending 30 June 2023, which are included in the company's annual report. Now, Trevor Hammond from EY was the lead audit partner for the company during the last year, and Trevor and his co-signing partner are here and available to answer questions on the audit and related matters. So I'll shortly invite shareholders to ask in person or submit online any questions regarding this resolution. For those shareholders and proxy holders participating online, just a reminder that there's a short delay in the broadcast, so please follow the instructions outlined earlier to ask your questions online.
Now, as I mentioned earlier in my address, over the last few months, we've received a number of emails concerning Wesfarmers' support for the referendum, some of which were in relation to the company making a donation to the Yes case. Now, we understand that many people have strong views on this matter, which we respect, and we have responded to people who sent in questions, but also consider it important to respond during the meeting to specific questions that have been raised. Now, as the donation question is a financial matter, we thought we'd address these questions while we're dealing with this first agenda item. Now, many of the questions covered the same ground, so we've compiled a summary of them, and I'll ask our moderator, Ruth, to read this out now, so we can provide answers to them for you today. So, Ruth?
Thank you, Chairman. The questions you refer to cover Wesfarmers' due diligence and rationale for supporting the Voice, the costs or benefits to the group, its shareholders, and alignment with the group's objectives, Wesfarmers' authority or legal right to make the donation, why shareholder approval wasn't sought, why a donation was made to only one side of the debate, the process for approval, how conflicts were managed, and which directors supported the donation, following the referendum outcome, whether directors will refund the donation, and the role of the company on social and political issues, and why this cause was supported relative to other social issues.
Well, thank you to the shareholders for their questions and their engagement on this topic. I think, I think some of those questions have been answered in our addresses, but I'll ask the Managing Director to provide some additional context on Wesfarmers' approach to reconciliation and on management's recommendation to support the proposal to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the Constitution. And then I'll also make some comments on the specifics raised by the question. So, Rob?
Well, thank you, Chairman, and I look. I covered some of this earlier, but it's important that we respond very clearly to the questions that have been asked. As one of Australia's largest companies, serving millions of customers every week in communities across Australia, Wesfarmers has a strong and somewhat unique understanding of the many challenges faced by Indigenous people. Now, our vision for reconciliation is an Australia that affords equal opportunities to all, and we're committed to ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel welcome in our businesses as team members, as customers, suppliers, and visitors. For many years, we've outlined this vision in our annual reports and at our AGM, because we see these actions as closely aligned with our corporate objective.
For instance, we know that our businesses perform better when the communities in which they operate are thriving, and our strategies aim to strengthen our teams and our businesses. From as early as 2000, through actions such as our partnership with the Clontarf Foundation, Wesfarmers has actively supported reconciliation. As we mentioned earlier, in 2009, we were one of the first companies to launch a Reconciliation Action Plan, or a RAP, as they're known, formalizing and extending initiatives in our divisions. In 2022, we were proud to launch our eighth RAP, achieving the highest level of Elevate, joining a small but dedicated cohort of Australian companies and organizations deeply committed to reconciliation. Our latest RAP is focused on five core areas: sustainable employment, career progression, procurement, community partnerships, and culture.
Now, these foundational pillars of our RAP are the, our areas of focus, knowing that with confidence, that they're also aligned with Wesfarmers' objective. Now, today, we employ just under 4,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team members across all parts of our businesses and in all parts of Australia. And by listening to our team members, suppliers, governments, community partners, and other stakeholders, we continue to evolve and strengthen our approach. Since 2019, we have publicly supported the Uluru Statement because it aligned with our commitment to reconciliation and our view that it would deliver improvements from the status quo. And against this backdrop, and based on feedback that we received from our team and our stakeholders, management made a recommendation to the board to support a financial co-contribution by the group to the Yes campaign, along with many other companies.
I should note that due to his membership of the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition Limited, the chairman absented himself from the meeting, and the board then discussed and endorsed management's recommendation on the issue. Now, clearly, 12 days ago, Australia voted and decided not to enshrine a Voice in the Constitution, and we fully respect the decision of the Australian people. Importantly, the referendum means that there has never been more awareness of the significant challenges facing many Indigenous people, with Australians troubled by the lack of progress. On all sides of the debate, there was consensus about the need for practical measures that will have an impact and deliver benefits for Indigenous communities, particularly in health, education, housing, and employment. In this context, Wesfarmers remains committed to reconciliation and will remain focused on delivering measurable outcomes. That will be our focus.
I'll now hand back to the chairman.
Well, thank you, Rob, for that context, which I think and I hope gives a sense of the company's rationale for supporting the Voice and how we see our actions aligned with reconciliation and aligned with our objective. Now, in relation to the questions on the role of the company in social or political issues, it's important, firstly, to note that we never saw this as a political issue. In this case, Labor was supporting the issue, but so did many in the Liberal Party and some National Party politicians, and I'm sure that they, like us, saw it as an issue of social responsibility. As Rob said, we see reconciliation as an important social issue where there's close alignment with our corporate objective and the communities in which our businesses operate.
I must say, I've always found the suggestion that companies shouldn't be involved in social issues to be very surprising. At the heart of this is the issue of corporate social responsibility, of earning your license to operate. Whenever a company supports a community cause, as we all do, it's making a statement on a social issue. For example, when we donate $1 million every year to the Clontarf Foundation, and we've been a founding donor since 2001, and the foundation now has over 10,000 Indigenous schoolboys in its academies, we're taking a position on Indigenous disadvantage. We'd like to help, and we're confident that, in turn, supporting Clontarf will enhance our reputation. It's in the company's interest to do so. And there are many other examples of that in Wesfarmers and in every other company.
As you would have read on page 70 of this year's annual report, our direct and indirect community contributions over the last year totaled over $ 75 million, and we are absolutely confident that that use of company money is very much in the company's interest because it enhances our reputation and helps people understand we're a really great company, worthy of their support. Now, turning to some of the other questions raised or the issues raised in the questions. As many of you will know, the duty of Australian directors under the Australian Companies Act, the primary duty of directors, is to the company: to act in the best interest of the company. Expenditures authorized by management or the board are expenditures of company money and are made where it's believed they're in the interests of the company. They enhance the company's interest.
Now, as with any expenditure, neither management nor the board seek specific shareholder approval. Directors are appointed by the shareholders and charged with making decisions in the best interests of the company. So we spend $40 billion a year, $40,000 million dollars a year, and those expenditures are authorized by the board, appointed by the shareholders. Now, very importantly, the decision to support the referendum was not a product of the personal views of any member of either management or the board. It was a proposal, as Rob said, put to the board by management and a decision made by the board, and the recommendation and the decision followed many years of diligent work and the reconciliation journey that's been described today.
With regard to the question of the position of individual directors on the issue, we do not and will not be disclosing individual directors' views on this or any other issue, as we never do. What matters is that the board endorsed the decision because it was considered to be in the best interest of the company. There's no basis, and it would be totally unreasonable and inappropriate, for directors who have formed a view that a decision's in the best interest of the company to personally refund amounts paid by the company in carrying out that decision.
Now, of course, Wesfarmers was just one of scores of public companies that declared their support for the referendum, and they were amongst over 1,500 organizations that did so, including the Business Council of Australia, the Board of the Australian Institute for Company Directors, all religious denominations, every state government, sporting codes, sporting clubs, educational institutions, all the law firms you've heard of, hundreds of organizations in the health sector, the directors and council members and committee members of those organizations who considered the arguments for and against and decided, like us, that their organization should stand up and be counted. And in contrast, not one organization came out against. So, in conclusion, Wesfarmers' support for the Voice sat very comfortably alongside our long-standing and ongoing reconciliation journey, which we see as being aligned with the best interest of the company and with our corporate objective.
Now, there was, as always, a detailed consideration, and process to discuss a range of issues regarding the proposal before a decision was made. Now, we recognize, of course, that views and perspectives may differ among our team members and our shareholders and the community, and also that some views may be strong, very strongly held. We made it clear from the outset that voting on the referendum was a personal decision, and we took every opportunity to reinforce internally and externally the importance of respectful debate. So Wesfarmers respects the outcome of the referendum, as Rob said, and we've been encouraged by the consensus on all sides of the debate that more needs to be done to address the challenges facing many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Our hope that is that this consensus can be harnessed to deliver improved outcomes for Indigenous Australians, Australians over coming years, and certainly, Wesfarmers remains fully committed to doing its part in that. So I trust that's answered the questions that have been asked pre-meeting. Are there any other questions on this item one on the financial accounts? And Ruth, are you do you have any additional questions there?
No, Chairman, no further questions online.
Okay, thank you. Right, if there are no further questions, we will move on to the next item of business, which is for the re-election of the existing directors. Oh, sorry, there's a question at microphone three.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Microphone three. May I introduce Jeff Reid, proxy holder.
Good morning, Chairman. Thank you. My name's Je ff Reid. I'm representing 1,300 shareholders of the Australian Shareholders Association, who between them hold 3 million Wesfarmers shares. Chairman, I'd like to take this subject away from the donation to the Voice campaign to lithium. I'm not sure if the prior address by the managing director of the lithium business was broadcast widely or whether it was confined to the room. The CEO has told us that the lithium mine at Mount Holland and the concentrator, the refinery at Kwinana are on track. That's great news. Prior to your opening the meeting, we heard that the senior executives of the lithium business are considering a doubling of capacity, both at Mount Holland and also an increase in capacity at Kwinana.
My question to you, Chairman, is: we haven't achieved a significant run rate at either site. We've only got our first lithium ore out of the ground. So how do we know what the all-in cost of production is, either at the mine or at the refinery? And we know that the lithium price is volatile, very volatile. So how can we possibly be considering expansions when we haven't really got a firm handle on the costs of production of the existing business?
Well, thanks, Mr. Reid. It's a very good question, and I think the key to the answer is the word considering that it takes years to actually plan something like an expansion. And so, as Rob said, by the first half of the calendar year, we expect to be selling spodumene concentrate, and then in early calendar 2025, we expect to be producing lithium hydroxide. The expansion evaluation at Mount Holland will run right through the next year, and so we'll have a very good handle on our ability to mine and produce spodumene concentrate by the time we took a final investment decision on the expansion of the mine. And any expansion of the lithium hydroxide plant would follow that.
And, you know, we'd make sure that we were fully confident that we could produce the product at the level of purity required before we committed to expanding it. You might know that some of the other spodumene producers have decided not to go that far down the value-adding chain, but to sort of go halfway. And obviously, the existing lithium hydroxide plants that have been built at Kwinana have been having trouble getting up to nameplate capacity. So, we think we've got the skills and the technologies and so on to do that. But you're dead right. We wouldn't make those decisions until we were confident that we could actually achieve what we are planning to do.
Thanks, Chairman. May I also ask, now that we're in the mining business again, will we be going to quarterly reporting?
No, we're not intending to do that. We are very much a conglomerate, and I know there are certain practices in the mining industry, like quarterly reporting and reporting on all-in sustaining costs and so on. But at this stage, that's not our plan, but it's something we can review.
Thanks, Chairman.
Okay, sorry, another question at microphone two.
Mr. Chairman, microphone two. May I introduce Brian Smith, who is a proxy holder.
Thank you, Chairman. Without going back over the issue of the referendum too much, for somebody who's worked and lived with Aboriginal people, Indigenous Australians, over 65 years, almost always on an equal footing, I find it very hard to understand how our board, who are obviously all very intelligent people, could not realize that the referendum was a purely political issue pushed by the Labor Party. Thank you.
Well, thanks, Mr. Smith, and you're certainly entitled to that view. I did describe how our view is different, but let me say, my hope would be that today at this meeting, we talk about Wesfarmers matters, including Wesfarmers' support of the referendum and not the referendum itself, not the issue. The issue was debated widely. We had the referendum a few weeks ago, and this is not the venue to be talking about the pros and cons of the proposed referendum change. Is there another question? Microphone seven.
Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Microphone seven. May I introduce Mr. Wyatt Heggie, who is a shareholder.
With all due respect, reconciliation should be legislated and temporary, not in the Constitution and permanent. Since 1967, all Australian citizens have been equal. Thank you.
Well, Mr. Heggie, you may have heard what I said a minute ago, but it's really not the venue to debate the referendum itself. Any further questions? Is that microphone three, is it? Or six. Yes, six.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Microphone six. May I introduce Mr. Stan Snook, who is a shareholder.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question: the Wesfarmers donation to the Telethon, please?
... Yes, sure. Would you like an explanation of it?
Just the total that was donated by Wesfarmers.
Yeah. Rob, you know the figure this year?
Mr. Snook, it's about $1.7 million, and our donation is directed towards the Telethon Kids Institute, specifically around the Wesfarmers. What has been enabled through our donation over many years, the Wesfarmers Centre for Infectious Diseases and Vaccines. And that donation has been in place for a number of years.
Thank you. I appreciate that. The disappointment I have is the disparity between the donation to the Yes vote and that which is contributed through Telethon, for which is for research and benefit of all Australian children. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Snook. Any other questions? Okay, if not, we'll move on. The next item is the re-election of existing directors. Bill English, Alan Cransberg, and I each retire by rotation at this meeting and offer ourselves for re-election today. Now, displayed on the screen is the position in relation to proxy votes, direct votes and proxies received on the re-election of each director prior to any revocations that may have occurred during this meeting. Now, for the benefit of those listening on the phone, there are 94.7% in favor of my re-election, 92.83% in favor of Bill English's re-election, and 96.53% of the votes in favor of Alan Cransberg's re-election. Now, as Resolution 2 A relates to my re-election, I'll now stand aside and hand the chair to our longest-serving director, Vanessa Wallace.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to put this resolution to the meeting. Michael has been a director since June 2015, and was appointed as Chairman of the Board in November of that year. So, Michael, would you mind providing some details on your background and experience to the meeting?
Well, thanks, Vanessa. This year marks my 40th year with Wesfarmers, if you don't count the 10 years that I was away for. I started out as Company Secretary in 1983, and we then listed the company in 1984, which many of you will recall. And eventually, I became Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Executive for 13 years, and I retired in 2005. While I was CEO, I'd been also on the board of BHP, and after I retired, I became Chairman of the National Australia Bank and Woodside Petroleum. And I came back to Wesfarmers as a director and then Chairman in 2015. And so, I've announced that this will be my last term. I'm getting old and doddery and ready for retirement in probably about 3 years.
I'm also, I'm very pleased to say I'm chairman of Northern Star Resources Limited, which is Australia's great gold miner and something I enjoy very much because I've actually got a background in geology. What do I bring to the board? I'd like to think it's a maintaining of the Wesfarmers culture, which I describe as a shareholder return-focused culture. No empire building, limited egos. We're here for shareholders. We do what we think is in their best long-term interest, and I think it's a fabulous company. It's got quite a unique culture in that regard, I think, and it's a great privilege to be serving as chairman, and I thank you for your support.
Thank you, Michael. I'll invite shareholders to ask questions regarding this resolution. Ruth, we might start with you. Are there any questions?
Thank you, Chair. Shareholder Mr. Stephen Mayne asks: Mr. Chaney spent 23 years as an executive of Wesfarmers from 1983 until 2005, and then, after a 10-year break, has been chairman for the past 8 years. Thank you for clarifying that he will retire in 2026 if elected for one final 3-year term today. Does Mr. Chaney agree that the 2001 Howard Smith takeover for $2.7 billion was the best deal in our history, given the subsequent success of Bunnings? What other acquisitions does he regard highly over the years? Apart from the folly of taking Bunnings into the UK, does he have any regrets?
Can I just first say that I think we all would agree that the Howard Smith acquisition was a fantastic acquisition, and I've been on the board since 2010, and there have been many, many decisions on acquisitions through that time. And, the success of Bunnings and some of the add-ons to the Bunnings business have also been great additions. I don't know whether you actually want to add anything to that, Michael?
Well, I think, there have been a couple of outstanding acquisitions. One was the Curragh Coal Mine, which is a coking coal mine used for steelmaking, which performed way beyond our wildest dreams. And you need those sort of things to make up for Bunnings UK, which you referred to, where we did write off $1.5 billion. And I think the lesson from all of those M&A activities is that inevitably you get some right and you get some wrong, and your hope is that the right ones are bigger than the wrong ones. And to date, that's been the case with Wesfarmers.
Thank you, Michael. Ruth, are there any more questions?
No, Chair.
Microphone 5.
Good morning. We have microphone five. May I please introduce Clancy, who is a shareholder, and he wanted to ask a question relating to the first resolution, but we just missed the cut off there.
Sorry. If you'd like us to save it to the end?
Yeah, I think it's better to save it to the end while we're focused on this resolution-
No problem.
So people can vote on this resolution. Is that okay, Mr. Clancy? Thank you. Any questions on this resolution? Ruth, any more from you?
Chair, I have an audo question.
Yep.
I apologize, Chair. I believe they've left.
Okay. Apologies for that one. Okay, if there are no more questions from the floor? If there are no more questions, I will now hand back to the chair. Michael, thank you.
Thanks very much, Vanessa. Well, the second director standing for re-election today is Bill English. Bill was appointed to the board in April 2018. So Bill, would you mind coming up and providing the meeting with details about your background and experience? Thanks.
Good afternoon. As Mike said, I joined the board in 2018 after a number of years as the Finance Minister and briefly Prime Minister in New Zealand. A time during which I dealt extensively with changing macroeconomic conditions, the global financial crisis, and the wide-ranging commercial interests that any government has. I joined the board about the time that the first decisions were made over Bunnings in the U.K. and also the demerger of Coles. So this... I've had significant commercial experience over the last five years on this board. A thoroughly professional group of directors who I think do a good job of balancing the growing demands of compliance with spending time on constructive, value-creating decisions.
Alongside this directorship, I'm a director of Todd Corporation, which is a family-owned company in New Zealand, responsible for around 40% of the gas market in New Zealand, as an oil and gas explorer, and also with some iron ore interests in the Pilbara. I've enjoyed very much the pride of being part of the Wesfarmers team, particularly as it has expanded its recent investments in New Zealand. There's no doubt that the outlook now is different than the last five years. Consumers and businesses are getting used to sticky inflation, higher interest rates for longer, and actually, for many businesses, it's going to be something of a grind.
Wesfarmers, I believe, is well-positioned because of its relentless focus on operational excellence, and its patient and disciplined allocation of capital, and its strong governance, including under our chairman. So thank you for your support three years ago, and the opportunity to serve on the board, and I look forward to your support and another opportunity to continue working with this dynamic and well-led business.
Well, thank you, Bill. I invite shareholders to ask any questions in relation to the re-election of Bill English. Yes, to the microphone 4.
Mr. Chairman, microphone four. May I introduce Rod Moir, who's a shareholder.
Thanks very much, Chairman Chaney. I'd like to ask a question relates to a comment that Mr. English made vis-à-vis compliance. I'm assuming that, the vice chairman of Wesfarmers, when he refers to compliance, is making a reference to ESG, which I'll call environment, social, and government, governance, sorry. On that front, Mr. English, I am the bearer of wonderful news, because with respect to compliance, given that I'm a career farmer in the Southwest Land Division of Western Australia, I can tell you this- I recently had occasion to go to a men's toilet on a rare visit to the western suburbs of the capital city of Western Australia, Perth. And to my great delight, I was confronted with a beautifully ornate white enamel cistern, where someone of my gender then has the opportunity to urinate into.
At the bottom of the aforementioned cistern, Michael Chaney and Vice Chairman, to my great delight, I saw a green plastic receptacle, anti-drip, anti-splash device that had ESG written on it. I quietly said to myself, as I safely did up my zip: "My God, isn't the world a better place for compliance? Isn't agriculture and Wesfarmers in very, very good hands? I hope I don't ever have to come back to a Wesfarmers AGM and hear a director, vice chairman, or otherwise, whinge about compliance without having the courage to say, 'Actually, government and those that apply ESG, I've had a guts full. No more.'" Thank you.
Well, Mr. Moir, all of us take pleasure in different things. I think probably what you're referring to was there's been some criticism of companies paying too much attention to ESG matters. What people don't realize is that almost all of them are mandated by laws, including by laws passed by members of governments that don't seem to approve of them. You know, we're required to conform to laws about modern slavery, and you'll see that in our annual report, to laws about carbon emissions, to laws about safety and employee matters. Now, all of those have been brought in either here or internationally, in some cases under the International Financial Reporting Standards, and there is no choice but to comply. But as far as we're concerned, it doesn't worry us at all.
We think, as I said in my speech, looking after the interest of all stakeholders, providing, for example, safe workplaces, being a responsible environmental company, making sure that our supply chains are free of modern slavery, are essential actions by the company if it wants to be successful financially in the long run. And so, if you think that, ESG is some sort of distraction from the main purpose, you're dead wrong. It is hand in hand with financial success, and it's no coincidence that Wesfarmers has been a leader in disclosure on all these sort of items and has been amongst the top financial performers in the stock exchange. They go hand in hand. Are there any other questions? Was there one? Can you see one? Ruth, have you got any questions?
Yes, Chairman. Shareholder, Mr. Stephen Mayne asks: Now that the National Party has returned to power in New Zealand, is there a risk that former New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English could be lured into a range of government roles in New Zealand, which would impinge his ability to fulfill his director duties as a director of Perth-based Wesfarmers? Also, could Chairman Chaney comment on why he's never offered a board position to any of our six living former Australian prime ministers? Are they not good enough? The Murdochs have just appointed Tony Abbott to Fox Corp.
Well, on the first question, we've seen no sign that Bill English won't have the capacity to make the contribution that he's been making over the term of his appointment to the board, and we're confident that he'll be able to continue in that position, notwithstanding his skills might be attractive to the new government. As far as the second question goes about offering a position to other Australian prime ministers or ex-prime ministers, one of the great attractions of approaching Bill and getting him to agree to join the board is that we have really important activities in New Zealand. You know, and it's very important for us to have somebody who lives there who can come to the board with some observations about what he's seeing on the ground.
So it's been great, and I don't personally or we don't have anything against any ex-Australian prime minister. It's just that there hasn't been a skills gap that we felt needed to be filled by any of them. ... number five.
Mr. Chairman, Microphone five. May I introduce Colin [Straughn], who is a shareholder.
Mr. Chaney, I'm not sure that now is the time that I think it is. I would like to put a couple of questions to Bill English, if I could please.
Why don't you ask the questions?
What, what question do I ask?
Yeah. Why don't you ask them, and we'll talk about it.
Okay. Well, first of all, I would like to know what the remuneration is that he receives from Wesfarmers?
Yeah, that's about $200,000 a year.
Okay, thank you. I would also ask, as I see he is a director of six other entities, and chairman of two more, what is his total remuneration, and how much time does that allow him to give to Wesfarmers?
Yeah. Well, he... I'm not sure which organizations you're referring to, but Bill, there's only one listed company in Todd Corporation that you're a director of. The others are very small outfits, and as I said, we've... I don't know what they pay, but it wouldn't be anything like the fee he gets paid at Wesfarmers, if anything. And the main thing is, we haven't seen any sign that Bill is overworked or, unable to fulfill his duties at Wesfarmers.
Well, it surprises me because repeatedly we see this situation in a lot of companies, and I don't think I'm the only person that often wonders how much time it allows a director to give to the company that he is attending at the moment.
Can I, can I say that the proxy advisors who advise all the shareholders have sort of scores for how many boards you're on, and they say you can have a maximum of 5. They would give Bill 2, 1 for each of the listed companies, and so, you know, their advice to the shareholders was vote in favor.
That's not the way it reads in the annual report. And I refer you to page 88 or page... There's another one there. There's 88, and I just, at the moment, can't see what the other-- There's two pages there that tell us of the number of boards that Bill English is on, and it reads pretty well until you start digging into it.
Yeah, well, I can tell you, one of them I used to be involved in. It meets a couple of times a year for an hour or two. But they're all, as I say, they're all, much smaller outfits, some of them not-for-profit, where there'd be no fee. And the simple fact is that the proxy advisors recommend a vote in favor because in their view, he's not nearly over-boarded, as they say.
Yeah, okay. So the next question I would like to put, and I'm not going to go back over the yes/no vote, that's been covered. But I will submit to the meeting that I was definitely a no voter, and I yarned with a very great number of shareholders out there before the meeting, and I could not get one that agreed with the yes vote. So Wesfarmers, I believe, got a lot of egg on their face over that. But the next question I've got to put is regards the treaty. The yes/no vote is history, the treaty is not. The treaty is yes, yet to come, and I would like to know what Bill English and the board, the direction you are going to take with the treaty.
Well, the whole issue of the treaty is not a single treaty issue. The referendum now has not been passed. It's up to governments around Australia to decide what, if anything, they want to do about treaties. You'd be aware that Colin Barnett initiated a treaty with the Noongar people in the Southwest, treaty. Not called a treaty, but it's really an agreement with compensation, and that was passed in the last year or two, or the last year, I think, and not noticed. Now, I think what's gonna happen is, around the country, some state governments will enter into agreements with indigenous people, but it's not something that we'd be involved in at all.
I'm pleased to hear that. I have looked up in the dictionary the word treaty. I think most of us have heard it, but it's not a bad idea to look it up in the dictionary and see what it is. And what it is stated in the dictionary is, it gives the. There's two examples: It gives money to the people who it is agreed to have a treaty with. And there are two examples given. One is in America, where you have the Cherokee Indians have a treaty with America, and very simply, it states that that gives those Indians' monies annual, well, I don't know whether it's annually, continually. The other example it gives is Canada, who also has a treaty with their Indigenous, and the same thing applies. Now, that-
Can I just interrupt? I'm not sure what this has to do at all with Wesfarmers. So I think, I think the audence, or the majority of the audence feels the same, and I, it'd be better if we didn't go into issues that are totally outside Wesfarmers' interest.
Well, I think the treaty does come into their interest, but okay, I'll leave it there.
Are there any other questions about the re-election of Mr. English or Sir Bill? Okay, if not, then, I'll introduce our third director, standing for re-election, Alan Cransberg. Alan was appointed to the board in October 2021. Thank you, Alan.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll start off by saying I've never been Prime Minister, but I wouldn't mind a crack at it. I've been on the board for two years, and I'll just cover some of my background around my business activities, sporting and community activities. In the business world, I ran Alcoa's Primary Products division. I was based in New York for a decade and ran all their global manufacturing facilities in refining, mining, and smelting around the world. I returned to Perth around 2008 as chairman and managing director of Alcoa Australia, while maintaining my global control of Alcoa's refining facilities. While I was working, I loved my job, but I learned a lot about the focus of operational excellence and continuously improving an operation that you're part of, and I think that fits with Wesfarmers.
I learned a lot about never deviating from your core values, and I learned a lot about the fact that in a cyclical business, you invest for the long term and make investment and divestment decisions based on the long term. Finally, I learned that the amazing things an organization can do if you get everybody aligned and everybody engaged on where you're going. Again, I think that's a good fit with Wesfarmers. In the community, I chair a foundation, the Waalitj Foundation, which has had enormous success in getting First Nations people out of the justice system, mentoring them into employment, into training, and lately, our latest venture is setting up Indigenous businesses and helping people do that. I'm also part of a number of other boards focused on education, returned SAS veterans, and parenting.
Finally, on the sporting front, I was previously chair of West Coast Eagles. I'm not sure if I should mention that, given how they went last year. Was leading the board when we negotiated both the Optus Stadium deal and also the new training and administrative facilities at Lathlain Park. In the two years I've been on the board with Wesfarmers, I've been really impressed both by the board and the executive team and the work that they put in. I think our company has and deserves an outstanding reputation. It values its people, it's got an outstanding focus on returns for shareholders, and it has a heart, and I think that's important.
It wants to make a difference in the community, be it supporting the arts or even the Bunnings Sausage Sizzle, which supports hundreds of organizations, or focusing on employing people from minority groups and providing them with meaningful development and career opportunities. So I think my background and skill set in both businesses, in both business and the community, allows me to assist Wesfarmers in continuing to deliver a satisfactory return for shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you, Alan. Now I invite shareholders to ask any questions on this resolution, this agenda item. Number 7.
Chairman, I've got Mr. Wyatt Heggie again, who is a shareholder, and he has a question.
I'd like to ask Mr. Cransberg, why haven't the Eagles sacked Simpson?
I think I can answer that. No comment.
Are there any other questions? Okay, if not, I ask you to vote on resolutions 2A to 2C. Each of these resolutions is independent and should be voted on separately. Shareholders voting in person should place a mark in the for, against, or abstain box for each resolution, on your green voting cards. Now, similarly, proxy holders who are voting in person, who've been given open votes, should place a mark in the appropriate box on your blue voting card, to indicate whether you're voting the open votes for, against, or abstaining on each of the resolutions. Now, shareholders who've already voted, have received a yellow card and don't need to do anything further. If you need assistance completing your voting card, please raise your hand, and a Computershare staff member will come and help you.
Shareholders and proxy holders voting online should follow the instructions already provided. The user guide is available on the voting platform as well as on Wesfarmers' website. So if you need any assistance, as we said before, please call Lumi on the number shown on the slide. Now, item three relates to the company's remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2023. Displayed on the screen is the position in relation to direct votes and proxies that have been received on this resolution, prior to any revocations that may have occurred during this meeting. For the benefit of those listening on the phone, there were 96.31% of votes in favor of this resolution.
The remuneration report provides information regarding the remuneration of our directors and senior executives, those who are considered to be Key Management Personnel of the group, and can be found on page 100 of the company's 2023 annual report. Now, we appreciate the engagement from shareholders in relation to Wesfarmers' executive remuneration, and in response to questions submitted prior to the meeting, I wanted to provide a little further context on our approach. We, at the board, remain committed to an executive remuneration framework underpinned by our guiding remuneration principles, that are really focused on driving leadership, performance, and behaviors to deliver satisfactory returns to shareholders over the long term. The total remuneration of senior executives is set at levels that reflect the executives' contribution, and competencies, and capabilities, and at a level that enables Wesfarmers to attract and retain the best people.
The remuneration report in our annual report, including the covering letter from Mike Roche, the Chair of the Rem Committee, provides a detailed explanation of the remuneration outcomes for the 2023 financial year, so I, I need not repeat them here. This year's report continues to address the desire for greater transparency regarding our remuneration framework and outcomes, and specifically in regard to variable remuneration. So,
The 110,000 dollars a week, up to a hundred... I think it was, Joyce had 168,000 dollars a week. If it's a 50-hour week, that comes down to about 2,300-3,400 dollars an hour. I can't see the justification in that. In the days gone by, if you didn't perform to the standards of expected by the company, you lost your job. Why keep on up compounding the problems? This, it's gotta be, it's gotta be modified.
Thanks, Mr. Wood. This issue, I think, comes up at every AGM, and it is something I think that many shareholders look at and say, "That these people are paid too much." The fact is, as I said in my earlier comments, we seek to have a remuneration structure that is in line with market practice and which attracts and retains the best people we can find. Quite frankly, if we paid them half what they're paid, many of them would go and work for someone like private equity. I mean, in private equity in Australia, you can earn a heck of a lot money, a lot more money than you can earn, being a CEO or a senior executive in a company.
What we need to do is to make sure we provide enough incentives, and generally, they're long-term incentives that incentivize people to stay with the company when we think they're really making a great contribution, to provide enough of those to satisfy the executives and to retain them. I'm not sure what else I can add, but you know, we do go out all the time benchmarking, and I think your point would be: well, you benchmark, but everyone's paid too much. Well, I'm not sure what you would do about that because-
Most of the major shareholders benchmark on exactly the same thing as corporate. You know, where's the company loyalty? When is enough, enough?
Well, let me say, we've got very loyal employees, but you, you need to make sure that they're remunerated as well as they would be somewhere else. It's straightforward.
I'm yet to learn how to live on $2,300 an hour.
Are there any more questions on the remuneration report? Sorry, one online. Ruth?
Chairman, shareholder Mrs. Helen Haysom asks, "When is the company going to review the remuneration packages of senior executives and limit them to no more than $ 500,000 per annum?
Well, thanks, Mrs. Haysom. I'm afraid I've already answered that question with my last response, so we should just let it go at that.
...Thank you, Chairman. I have a second question from shareholder Mr. David William Hayden, who asks: "Explain how management are incentivized to maintain a high return on equity and allocate retained capital intelligently for the benefit of shareholders?
Yeah, I'm very pleased to respond to that because as I said in my remarks on the other side, I think Wesfarmers has a pretty uncommon focus on shareholder returns. And one of the reasons for that is that since we went public, we've provided incentives that were tied to either return on equity or return on capital. And we've managed to communicate the message through the group that capital is valuable, that if you are gonna spend a dollar of capital, we expect to get a return on it. And so if you look at Rob Scott's incentive plan, for which, by the way, in his long-term incentive, he receives no cash, but just shares. There are measures like profit, but return on equity, and the same with the divisional managers.
So they've got a return on capital as we define it, measure and return on capital gates on the earnings measure, to drive home the point constantly that, we want people to think all the time about capital being valuable. So, I think it's really been a key to the outperformance of the company, which I described earlier, where over the course of 40 years, I think the annual rate of return is about 19% and compares with a far lower rate of return in the market as a whole, because we have managed to really cement a focus on return on capital. Did you have another question, Ruth?
I do, Chairman. Another from Mr. Stephen Maine, who asks: "The likes of Dexus, Brambles, NAB, JB Hi-Fi, Origin Energy, Viva Energy, and many other companies, have all disclosed their proxy votes to the ASX before their latest AGM started, along with the formal addresses. Will the board agree to do this next year so that interested shareholders and other stakeholders, including institutional investors and proxy advisors, have an early insight into the proxy position before the AGM debate commences? Did any of the proxy advisors recommend against the remuneration report? And is it correct that a majority of shareholders voting by proxy oppose the remuneration report, but that this has been overwhelmed by big institutional shareholders voting in favor?
So on the first point, I don't really see any use in doing that. We released the Chairman's and Managing Director's addresses to the exchange. You could release the proxy voting results, but we release them at the meeting, and it's not as if the voting is still open by proxy externally. That closed yesterday. So I don't see the point of doing it. I don't think it's a big deal one way or the other. As far as your second question goes, no proxy advisor recommended against a yes vote in the remuneration report. And your third point is about majority of shareholders voting by proxy against versus institutions. Well, I don't know the answer.
What we do and what we publish is what's required by the law and the stock exchange listing rules, and that is the voting by number of shares. Are there any other questions? If there are no further questions, then I ask you to vote on Resolution 3, and we're now moving to the final item of business for the meeting, and I'll take this opportunity to remind those eligible to vote who've not yet cast their vote, that I'll close the poll shortly after the final item of business. So please ensure you do cast your votes before that time. The next item is item four, which relates to the grant of deferred shares and performance shares to the Group Managing Director.
Displayed on the screen is the position in relation to direct and indirect votes and proxies received on that prior to any revocations that may have been received during this meeting. For the benefit of those listening in on the phone, there are 96.65% of votes in favor of this resolution. The board believes it's very much in the shareholders' interest to provide the Managing Director with equity-based incentives that ensures significant alignment between satisfactory long-term shareholder returns and rewards for Mr. Scott as an Executive Director. So approval is sought for the grant of Deferred Shares and Performance Shares to Mr. Scott under the 2023 Key Executive Equity Performance Plan. So are there any questions on this item? It looks like not.
But, Ruth, do you have one online?
Oh, I apologize, Chair. That, the item's being put through for the wrong question.
So was that a no?
No, none online.
Right. Okay. So, if there are no-- Are there any questions in the room? Okay... Ruth, was that to Ruth?
There is a question. I'll put it to you now, if I may.
Okay.
Chairman, shareholder Stephen Mayne asks: Could CEO Rob Scott 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? Mr. Mayne adds, "Please don't say look it up in the annual report and through ASX announcements. It's complicated, and the CEO could factually summarize the situation in 60 seconds.
Well, I think, unfortunately, Steven, it's, it is complicated because there have been quite a lot of LTI grants which have vested and quite a lot that haven't vested, and I don't know what the number is, but call it 10 or 20. And the, the only time, as far as I know, that CEO has sold any shares is to pay tax, because what happens when an incentive vests is that, you immediately, are assessed for tax, and so you lose half the benefit of it. And, because some of the incentives have been significant, shares have been sold in order to fund tax, and that is something that happens, in all companies.
I must say, I'll often thought the most long-term shareholders in any company are the executives, because they're discouraged from selling shares except for that reason, and they end up holding shares for many years, if not decades. No more questions? All right, fine. I'd ask you then to vote on Resolution 4. Now, that concludes the formal business of the meeting, and I now intend to close the poll. So if you're eligible to vote, and have not yet cast your vote and wish to do so, please ensure that you do.[
[Angela]
Thank you, Vicki. Very good. So, if you haven't completed them, and some I see are still handing them to Computershare staff, and so, we'll leave it a few minutes to make sure that they all go in. Vicki, have you put those in the ballot box? So if anyone's still got any voting cards, could they just raise their hand, please? Okay, good. Well, thank you very much for taking time to cast your votes, and I now declare the poll has closed. Shortly, we'll be moving to general questions. If you have any matters of general, any general issues, please, do feel free to stand up and ask a question. We've got a great turnout today, so, we've got, no doubt some shareholders who want to ask questions about business.
If they're detailed operations sort of things, as I said at the outset, you can ask them outside of the divisional managers. So, are there any questions? Yeah, on... I think it's Mr. Clancy, is it? Thanks, Mr. Clancy.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Clancy, who is a shareholder.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman, and my question is probably to you and the board, but I think actually in the light of your response earlier on, it goes back to the support of the constitutional recognition that the Wesfarmers had elected to spend money on. I'm wondering whether I'd like to get an idea, particularly under the board charter, pretty well states the responsibilities in its size, composition, and structure of the board, in its elevating its performance, and also, it also in Section 1.2, it also talks about the annual review of the group's diversity initiatives and its measurable objectives.
In the light of the vast majority in the current referendum, what metrics or what assessments do you do to make sure that your directors, and probably I'll relate it back to the managing director, because they, you indicated before that they come up with a proposal to support financially that campaign? What do you do to actually make sure that your assessments and your independence do reflect your major shareholders, which is probably, you know, which now has shown two-thirds of them voted in the no campaign? What do you do to make sure that you are aligned with the value of your mom and dad shareholders in making those decisions, particularly putting that proposal to the board?
Well, firstly, I don't think you can assume the two-thirds that you mentioned. That's a national figure, but every year we conduct an appraisal of the board. Every third year, we use an external consultant, which we did last year, and in the other two, we have a sort of online questionnaire thing. But that is quite detailed and looks at the skills of the board. It does a three-sixty of the directors, so each director is commenting on other directors, and the chair gets those bits of output. The other directors don't get it, and the chair then sits down with each director and goes through the feedback and so on.
So that's the individual appraisal, but the. As part of the exercise, you end up with a skills matrix, and you'll see that in the annual report, where we look at what are the skills the company needs to succeed, and do we have them? And if you don't, when someone retires, look around for somebody who can fill that skills gap. So that's how it works. I think. Well, in surveys, I have to tell you, this year, of our major shareholders, this board is ranked right at the top of Australian boards. So, and you see from the voting results, there's very strong support from our shareholders for the incumbents. So I don't know that I can add to that, but there's a very rigorous process of assessing what are the needs of the company and making sure we fill them.
Yes, that's fine, but in the light of the, probably the result, will you do a review on what, probably has come from that result of the, the vote? Because you do say you still have a support for constitutional recognition. That was actually your statement early on in today.
Yeah, I did say we did. We did. And now that the referendum is lost, there's no point in saying we support it. But no, we won't be taking account of the referendum vote in deciding what directors we need. Plain and simple. Number five. Perhaps we do number six first. It was up there first, I think.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Microphone six, may I introduce Mr. Paul Maher, who is a shareholder.
Thank you very much. As questions to the chairman and also the board, I'm looking again at this matrix that we were just speaking of, and on page 91 of the report, there's a listing of the various experiences and skill sets of the board. It just occurred to me, given that Wesfarmers is very strong in retail, that in terms of the, call it the positives under digital data and technology and also retail markets, the point scores on those appear to be quite low in relation to the other, types of experience. Is anything being done in regard to the, we'll say, technology at this stage and retail? Because that's the sort of environment we're living in. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Maher. The You referred to retail markets, where the report says four out of nine directors have skills, and in digital and data, five, five out of nine, and we think there's a pretty good representation there. On the digital side, sorry, the retail side, one thing you don't see is that we have Dave Cheesewright as board advisor, and Dave was head of Walmart International before he retired, and he has a pretty special role. He not only comes along and sits with the board and talks about how, what he thinks is happening in the world of retail, but he spends time with each division, and he looks at their strategies and their operations and what they're doing, and so on. And then is able to provide an informed view to the board about what he's seen.
In a way, it's a more useful thing than a non-executive director who comes along to just to board meetings and doesn't spend that time with management. So we've thought over the years about bringing on other directors who have retail backgrounds, but it's been a challenge. We've got people there, obviously, who have knowledge of the retail space, but we've got some of the best, if not the best, retailers in Australia. What you're looking for is somebody who can come on and provide wise counsel to management, and so they've got to be of a caliber and experience and, and so on, that justifies their being invited to join the board. But we... You know, in technology, we've got Anil Sabharwal, who's a senior executive with Google and is now.
I think, Anil, your current role includes worldwide management of Fitbit, and Anil was the head of Google Chrome and Google Photos worldwide. So we've got really deep knowledge in the IT area. So what we endeavor to do is have a broad range of experiences and skills, and we think we're pretty well catered for at the moment.
Thank you very much. That explains my question very well. Thanks.
Number 5.
Mr. Chairman, microphone 5, may I introduce Clyde Straughn, who is a shareholder.
Mr. Chairman, my name is Clyde Straughn. Been a shareholder for quite some time. I have an observation, too, before I go on. You were talking about the,
... the referendum, it is interesting to note that when you look at the boxes of votes that were counted, the yeses were very strong in the more affluent areas like the western suburbs of Perth, Canberra, and the affluent areas of the other cities. When you look at the outlying areas like the Cape York and other places like that, nos were the leading contenders, as they were throughout most of the nation. That's just an observation that I think that the board got it wrong when they decided to lay pressure, and I think they made more of a problem for the yes campaign by giving such an unbalanced support. But, my main concern goes back, to, the first year that or the last year that, Mr. Goyder was CEO of this company.
He stood up and gave a run-through of all of the different companies of Wesfarmers and the different arms, and when he came to Homebase, he mentioned that it hadn't shown any dividend. He said that it was more or less a wait-and-see scenario. Now, there was not one other member of the board stood up and said, "Well, this is not quite correct." But with the advent of time, within six months, Mr. Scott, in his first term, announced that the company, $1 billion worth, was sold for $1. Now, I hold it against the directors that sat tight-lipped and didn't mention any knowledge. I don't see that a billion-dollar company can go to crash in one season, in less than a season, six months.
Now, I feel that the boardroom neglected their shareholders by not alerting them and allowed Mr. Goyder to take in excess of $12 billion... $12 million in pay that year, and then for us to find out that the report that he gave was not sincere, was not correct. In my opinion, that would be it, at least. I feel that the problem that was created then was allowed to Mr. Goyder to go on to Qantas, whereby he did exactly the same with Mr. Joyce's departure. Allowed him to take a whole gamut of money that wasn't eligible for him to take away back to England with him. Yeah, it's very disappointing-
Okay.
that our shareholders, our directors haven't stood by the shareholders to a greater degree.
Yeah, okay. Firstly, what happens in Qantas has nothing to do with us, but the main point of your comment that I take exception to is that Mr. Goyder, when he at that annual meeting, wasn't sincere or open. What he said was the fact, and the fact at the time was this: We'd bought the Homebase chain, and we were building Bunnings warehouses in the UK. And the plan was to throw out some of the products in the Homebase chain, get them into what we saw as a proper hardware store, but at the same time, build these warehouse stores and see how they went. And so we had effectively a pilot program where we opened, and I can't remember how many, Mike might be able to tell us, but it was 20, was it?
and so we were testing how they went, and at that time, my recollection is that we were still considering the future of the business. And what, what happened really was that the market was a lot more competitive than we had assumed. And when we entered, the others, like B&Q and Wickes, reacted and I think lifted their game, and so you ended up with a number of big box competitors. and so they were all dividing up the revenues. And we decided subsequently, after actually the board went, and I went across, and visited, the new CEO we'd put in there. We decided that, we were better to cut and run.
That if we kept investing, we could well have achieved a return on capital of 8% or 9%, but it wasn't worth the trouble, and we were better to just write it off, sell it as we did for GBP 1, and learn a lesson from it. I think if we made a mistake, it was breaking our old rule of we don't accept hubris. That is, self-satisfaction, thinking you're the best in the world, because the attitude in Bunnings at the time was: Look, we're really good at this, we've proved it, and we can go to England and apply our skills there. Well, it turned out to be a much more competitive market, and it didn't work, basically. But I absolutely reject the suggestion that what Richard said at the time was not absolutely straight up. It was, "The board agreed.
We're in the process of evaluating it," and as he, I think you quoted him as saying, "We're considering the issue.
Well, I thank you for your explanation. I don't consider that a company can go from that value within six months without the sign board being out there.
Well, on that point, it had a value in the books because we'd invested all this money in it, and it went to zero because we decided not to pursue it, and so that does happen very quickly. It's like any impairment, where on the day you impair an asset, and it goes from this value to this value.
Yeah.
And so-
Okay, well, thank you on that. One other thing that bugs me, Welcome to Country. Now, I'm fine with the Indigenous. That's not a problem. But where I have a problem with Welcome to Country is if Welcome to Country has to be paid for, for the ceremony to be held, then I find there's a lack of sincerity in the actual welcome that is delivered.
Okay, well, that's... You're entitled to that view. It's not the view that many of us hold, I must say.
Well, okay, that's fine. Thank you.
Thank you. Right, we've got eight.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Microphone eight, I have Mr. Barry Kernaghan, who is a shareholder.
I should have mentioned it earlier, when Mr. Cransberg spoke, I had the opportunity, but being a world-class sprinter, I couldn't get to the microphone in time. I don't know if anyone watched the ABC at 8:00 P.M. on Wednesday night, but Tom Gleeson made complimentary remarks about Bunnings and their sausage sizzle. I would like to have mentioned it before, when there's a lot more people here, that we're so proud of Wesfarmers Bunnings for putting on the sausage sizzle, which helps sporting clubs. I'd like everybody to put their hands together and show the board how much we appreciate it.
Oh, Mike, you weren't supposed to be clapping there. We're very proud of it, and thanks, Mr. Kernaghan. It's been a fantastic thing, really started by Joe Boros and the team and, and then John Gillam, and it's been a wonderful way, I think, of uniting the community with the company and giving it the reputation that it has. Yes, number seven.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Microphone seven, may I introduce Mr. Waitaki, who is a shareholder with a comment.
John Pierce, director of Waitaki. After the chairman's address highlighting the IR issues, it is important that shareholders ensure we get rid of the Albanese government and dangerous senators like David Pocock, as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you very much for that. Any other questions? Number two.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, microphone two, I introduce Paul Vanzetti, who is a shareholder.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've not got a heavy question out of the annual report, but being a shareholder and holding shares that probably were bought when Wesfarmers first came into being, it's probably 100 years next year, and I'm just wondering what sort of celebrations they're going to have for their 100 years.
I think, who can help me here? But it's 100-something years. 110 years, is it? 100 and-
Ten.
Ten.
Next year.
Next year. Yeah, we had our 100th year celebration 10 years ago. We haven't really given consideration to whether we'd do anything on the 110th, but did you want to add to your comments?
No, thanks. I live off Wesfarmers, and my shares originate from the first year that Wesfarmers were in being, and I must have missed a 100-year celebration somewhere.
You were probably traveling the world on your dividends, but-
Well, I certainly live off of, live off them anyway.
Well, that's great. There are a lot of shareholders like you that were farmers and had trading bonuses, and when we went public in 1984, converted their Wesfarmers stock to shares, and it's been a fabulous investment. So it's one of the pleasures, actually, of having been involved, that people like you have benefited.
Yeah. So this is just a thank you to Wesfarmers, and I hope they keep going because I'm hoping to keep going, too.
Okay, any other questions?
Microphone five.
Number 5.
Mr. Chairman, microphone five. May I introduce Patrick Berg, who is a shareholder.
Yeah.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question just goes to Catch. Looking at the report, you reported $163 million loss for the business. I was just wondering, in the long term, what changes or improvements you're gonna make to that business?
Yeah. Well, I don't want you to think I pass all questions about losses to Rob, but I will do so.
... said it was disappointing to report that loss last year in Catch. As I reported today, we are seeing improvements in performance there. We have made quite a number of investments over the last five or six years in technology, in e-commerce, in omni-channel. It's a very competitive space, both very competitive domestic and international competitors. We've made an enormous amount of progress over the years. A number of things have gone well, some things haven't gone well. And with Catch, it's clear that we grew it too quickly through COVID, and now we're having to backtrack to try and get the costs under control and get the offer under control. So the team's working very hard on that. As I said, we're seeing an improvement in performance, but there's still more to do.
But overall, I'd say that our retail businesses collectively are in far better shape in terms of their omni-channel capabilities, their digital capabilities, which are really important to customers. Because what we see is that customers that shop not only in our stores but also online with us spend materially more money with us. So we really have to have fantastic e-commerce capabilities to complement our fantastic stores. And with Catch, we've just still got some work to do.
Okay. There are some online questions, Ruth.
Yes, Chairman, I have five questions. The first is actually two questions from Mr. Christian William Felix Brando, a shareholder, who notes that Volkswagen recently announced a sodium ion battery for use in electric vehicles. His questions are: What's the investment payback period for Wesfarmers lithium venture, and how many years? And how many years does Wesfarmers believe lithium will remain a key commodity for electric vehicle... sorry, electric battery production, particularly in light of Volkswagen's sodium ion technology, which may improve and become more competitive in years to come?
Yeah, thanks, Mr Brando. Firstly, we've never published a payback period for the project. One of the reasons for that is it depends so much on the price of the product, and as we all know, commodity prices fluctuate widely in many cases. And so trying to give you a definitive answer of, you know, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, is just not possible because we don't know what the future price will be. We think lithium will remain a key commodity, and we hope to make very good returns out of the project. You do hear from time to time suggestions of other technologies like the sodium one that you mentioned.
But given the amount of investment going into lithium batteries, and so on, and the corresponding investment by car makers, we think that it has a solid future for some years. And, you know, it's never possible to predict what's gonna happen with technology, but we're very happy with the investment we've made.
Thank you, Chairman. This is from shareholder Mr Rex Lyle Adams, who asks: What is Wesfarmers doing to reduce its carbon footprint? For instance, why not install rooftop solar with batteries on all Bunnings premises, whether owned or leased? The aim should become wholly independent of the electricity grid.
Well, yeah, that carbon footprint, this is something that we really are focused on, and Mike Schneider at Bunnings has headed up a huge program of installing roof, rooftop solar. And, as you probably know, our ambitions or our goals in the retail operations are to be 100% renewables by 2025. So we're well down the track on that. It's much harder for a Kmart because they're in major shopping centres often, and you can't just go putting panels on the roof. But each of the divisions is determined, the retail divisions, to be renewables only by 2025. And so, Ruth, did you have another question?
I do, Chairman. Shareholder Mr Anthony Carr has noted that Wesfarmers seeks to promote diversity and inclusion with its employment policies and would like to ask the board to give an assurance that appointments within the group will always be determined on merit, irrespective of race or gender.
Yes, they will. And, we've found it not difficult to meet our diversity targets while maintaining a focus on skills and abilities and so on.
Thank you, Chairman. I have two further from online. Mr Peter Gregory and Mrs Jennifer Gregory ask: Will the Kwinana refinery only be processing product from Mount Holland, or will it also source from other mines?
At this stage, it's only from Mount Holland, but, you know, as we look to expand at Mount Holland, we, as we said earlier, may well expand the Kwinana plant to take that. And needless to say, we look at other opportunities in the lithium space, and if we took one of those, we may well be processing other materials or other spodumene through Kwinana, but that's all dependent on availability of opportunities.
Thank you, Chairman. One final question from shareholder Ms. Melanie Tasker asks: What is the action towards, or numbers for, employees with disabilities and progressing towards an accessible workforce for more people?
So did you hear that, Rob? You might ask-
Yes, I think, yeah. So just in terms of employee numbers or team member numbers for team members that have disabilities, look, we would have... I would estimate that we have many hundreds across the group. In, I might actually get, you know, probably most of the. A large part of progress happens across our retail businesses, I should note. Kmart, in particular, has taken a real leadership position in this and would have the largest number of team members with disabilities. But that also follows across our other retail operations as well, and also some of our industrial businesses. Now, we don't publicly report the numbers, but they would be in the hundreds, and they are increasing.
Any more questions, Ruth?
No more online, Chairman.
Are there any further questions here? Okay, well, if not, thank you those of you who are still with us for joining us today at our meeting, in person or online or listening on the phone, and for your interest in the company. So I declare that all resolutions at today's meeting have been passed, and an announcement containing the final voting results will be released through the ASX company announcements platform and also, as I said, available on our website. So thank you all again for your participation in this meeting, and I declare it closed.