According to the Australian Financial Review, Gyngell was quoted at the time of the NEC float as saying: “If I get that money – and I’m not saying it’s not a lot of money – I think everyone else will be doing pretty well.”
“Everybody else” are the poor shareholders of NEC, and are they “doing pretty well”? Of course not, how can they be when the share price of NEC is below the float price? If you are an NEC shareholder would you rather be in your place or Gyngell’s place? Stupid question, isn’t it?
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of these kinds of remuneration deals, where hired hands take excessive amounts of shareholders’ money and then deliver mediocre to awful results. It just has to stop.
Gyngell is running a relatively small and poorly performing Australian television network, not BHP or Newscorp or Microsoft or General Electric. As such, his pay is out of all proportion to what reasonable minded people would think appropriate.
You will recall that Gyngell publically disgraced himself earlier this year when he was involved in a street brawl with James Packer – yes, these are our business leaders folks! Apparently punch-ups on the street are now acceptable behaviour for chief executives of publically listed corporations in Australia! Gyngell didn’t get sacked, so I can only conclude that this behaviour was acceptable to the Board of NEC.
A friend of my father always use to say that Australia is a country that rewards mediocrity in politics and business. I’ve thought long and hard about that statement since I first heard it as a child. Unfortunately, nothing I’ve witnessed subsequently has allowed me to refute that statement. Australia has mediocrity at all levels of government and business and to a greater extent now than ever before. Mediocrity is one thing, but to pay the sums of money we do for it is a travesty of monumental proportions.
