Green Resolutions unsettle Amcor at Sydney AGM

In late 1998 at AMCOR's AGM at the Regent Sydney, Chairman Stan Wallis and his co-directors must have felt distinctly uneasy at the vote for resolutions proposed by the Green Shareholders Group. Although the resolutions were defeated by the weight of proxy votes held by the Chairman from the big institutional shareholders, at least one third of the meeting and 26 million share proxy votes were in favour of our main resolution. And this was no greenie confest! This was a rather intimidating meeting of about 1500 mostly elderly AMCOR shareholders, who had been circulated with only our brief resolutions and the AMCOR board's unanimous recommendation to reject them.

Even more revealing were the extraordinary lengths to which AMCOR went to try to neutralize the effect of the Green Shareholders and their resolutions. It wasn't just that Wallis abused his position as Chairman, interrupting green speakers and using every possible opportunity to try to refute their arguments, or the very obvious and heavy-handed security, or that the Chairman attempted (unsuccessfully) to confine environmental questions to the end of the meeting - when shareholders tend to get restless and more interested in morning tea. Hotel security staff, clearly liaising with AMCOR types, crept up behind green shareholders handing out leaflets and took their bags of leaflets, refusing to return them until after the meeting.

While all this was happening, friendly activists from Sydney conservation groups held a demonstration outside, and unfurled one of Environment Victoria's giant anti-Reflex banners across the front of the hotel. The Daily Telegraph obliged with a big photo across page one of its business section.

The AMCOR Green Shareholders Group now has more than 150 members, and this enabled us (with a bit of fast footwork!) to achieve the 100 signatures necessary to have our resolutions circulated to the 120 million shareholders on AMCOR's share registry. The two resolutions were as follows:

1. That the board reinforce AMCOR's commitment to good environmental practice by ending its reliance on native forest woodchips as soon as practicable, and publish in the next half-yearly report a detailed plan and timeline showing how this will be achieved.
   
   
2. That the board investigate the feasibility of AMCOR making and marketing a range of office papers with no native forest content. A report to shareholders is requested in the next half-yearly report.

Group coordinator Wendy Radford gave a stirring speech to these resolutions, and about a dozen green shareholders and proxy-holders turned up the heat on Wallis & Co. with many pertinent questions about AMCOR's environmental record. Clearly this had its effect on voters. AGM's are stage-managed to intimidate, with massive video images of the Chairman and other board members confronting the audience when one of these captains of industry speaks. (This acted to our advantage at times - Wallis more than once forgot that he was larger than life, and could be clearly seen making mocking asides to one of his cronies - not a good look.)

So our green shareholders, a number of whom were attending their first AGM, did very well to sock it home to AMCOR! We were given invaluable help by the coordinators of the Sydney-based BORAL Green Shareholders , and by members of Sydney conservation groups. So although tackling AMCOR in Sydney was not easy, it was a valuable networking exercise.

One interesting but sad result of the pressure applied was a clarification of AMCOR's position on native forest logging. We can forget all that 'greenwash' about their moving to become more plantation-based. Chairman Wallis made it very clear that the corporation has no intention of getting out of native forests. (And why would they, when they get them for scandalously low royalties?) On the contrary, said Wallis, even if Reflex can be made totally from plantation pulp, we'll need native forests to make packaging. Get the picture? AMCOR will keep trashing our forests to make throw-away packaging. Despite their reams of green PR, AMCOR remains an environmental dinosaur.

Environment Victoria has now delivered two and a half thousand 'Don't buy Reflex' postcards to AMCOR. Perhaps not surprisingly, their PR people assiduously picked them all off the large plastic sheets to which they were stuck - and sent everybody a response. You'd wonder why they bothered. The quality of their response was so poor that it made many recipients angry, and determined to work harder against Reflex.

Picture courtesy of Environment Victoria.
Text: EV News, Feb. 1999

For further information contact the AMCOR Green Shareholders Group, the contact numbers are:
Business Hours:
Wendy Radford, 03 5442 6468;
After hours: John Poppins 03 9807 1262 www.amcorethical.shares.green.net.au

NORTH, ERA & WESTPAC:
Shareholder Activism & Jabiluka

Activists campaigning against the Jabiluka uranium mine have been especially active in the recent round of annual general meetings held by corporate giants Westpac, North Ltd and Energy Resources of Australia (ERA).

At the ERA AGM the company was challenged on its ability to deal with the environmental consequences of uranium mining at its Jabiluka mine. Leanne Woods was one of 30 protesters ejected from the meeting. As she was being removed she shouted: "Don't you care about our children?" The chairman of ERA replied: "With a little bit of luck hopefully you won't have any!" Protesters continued their activities outside the meeting.

NORTH Ltd is the parent company of ERA (it is also involved in the woodchipping of native forests). At the AGM activists appealed to shareholders to encourage the company to move away from environmentally damaging practices. The Wilderness Society is currently seeking NORTH Ltd shareholders to respond to environmental concerns.

Call NORTH Ltd Ethical Shareholders on
(02) 9518 5257. www.northethical.shares.green.net.au

Westpac is one of the bankers for NORTH Ltd and ERA. Westpac Nominees, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westpac, is one of the major shareholders of both companies. Before any questions were asked by shareholder activists at the Westpac AGM, the Chairman of the Board of Westpac surprised the audience by discussing the controversy surrounding the Jabiluka uranium mine and inviting the "concerned shareholders" to address the meeting. Chris Doran from The Wilderness Society (TWS) spoke on behalf of the groups present including TWS, Friends of the Earth and The Greens. The impromptu speech drew applause from the audience and provided further encouragement to the campaign which has focussed recently on informing Westpac's retail customers of the issues.

Reproduced courtesy of Ethinvest Newsletter, Autumn 1999

Photo: Native Forest Network - Melbourne

BORAL Green Shareholders

The BORAL AGM on November 9th last year was the event we have focussed on in recent times. We assembled about a dozen proxies and shareholders to ask questions.

The central theme this year was the logging of old growth trees. This was decided as a result of the logging of a huge, old Turpentine tree logged in the north of NSW, from which BORAL only received about 7 metres of timber -the rest was left to waste on the forest floor. We were enraged by this and decided to hand out photographs of this old tree to the shareholders. Many were unimpressed by the company's actions. The chairman, Peter Cottrell, made an undertaking to advise us of the circumstances surrounding the logging of this old tree. We have just heard from Managing Director Tony Berg, who stated that it was the responsibilityof State Forests - which is typical of the company's reaction. Since then we have heard of another old tree logged for BORAL which was so large it held 15 people on its stump.

As a result of the AGM, BORAL Green shareholders were reported in the press and we followed it up with a press release on the NSW Regional Forest Agreements (further detail below).

We believe that BORAL has not behaved as a good corporate citizen and that ultimately this will affect the company's overall performance. Newcastle Council has decided to have no new direct commercial dealings with BORAL because of its continued woodchip operations. Byron Bay Council is reported to have done the same. BORAL's Woodchipping Operations are indeed a cause for concern as they represent essentially a mining operation of our forests. Woodchipping is not a value adding activity and it's not a generator of jobs. When we had a site visit to their operations at Heron's Creek we were advised by senior company employees that BORAL has a recovery rate of 38% per log - the rest goes to the chipper.

Regional Forest Agreements
BORAL has been involved in 3 RFAs recently: Tasmania, NSW and QLD. Only QLD may produce a reasonable outcome (the company has Cooperated with the Queensland Timber Board and conservationists). An interim agreement on areas to be logged has been achieved - for now.

In October last year, we had a fact-finding tour to the site of BORAL's operations in north-east NSW. This year we may go on a trip to Tasmania in order to look at their operations there. Members will be advised and invited to join us. Reproduced courtesy of BORAL Green Shareholders, February 1999

BORAL GREEN SHAREHOLDERS MISSION STATEMENT To increase environmental responsibility within BORAL for the good of the community To foster an ethic of responsible corporate behaviour To maintain and enhance natural capital for the long term benefit of shareholders WORKING GOAL FOR FORESTS A phase out of industrial forestry in native forests and a transition to ecologically sustainable alternatives including plantations New members are welcome to our group -so that we can exchange ideas and bring new shareholders into our organisation. As there are costs incurred in mailing out to you, producing materials for AGMs and so forth we have decided to charge $25 for an annual membership as a minimum donation which will cover general administration expenses. For further Information: www.boralgreen.shares.green.net.au Telephone - 02 9489 0353