A glancing blow to Peter Nash
The chair of Westpac's audit committee will live to fight another day.
Greater than 35 per cent of Westpac shares cast at the bank’s annual general meeting on Thursday morning will be cast against the re-election of non-executive director Peter Nash.
For differing reasons, all three major proxy firms – Glass Lewis, ISS and Ownership Matters – have recommended against him, while the major super funds are split: Aware Super has voted against Nash, while AustralianSuper and UniSuper have backed him.
Nash is expected to brush off this repudiation and play on. He’s growing accustomed to it, having received a 28 per cent ‘no’ vote against his re-election to the board of Mirvac at the property group’s AGM three weeks ago. Nash is closer to a marginal seat-holder in parliament than a major company director, who are ordinarily returned each cycle with 95 per cent support.
