Farewell richly rewarded

OUTGOING Wesfarmers chief Richard Goyder has picked up more than $12 million in pay and perks – about $1380 every hour – in his final year heading the nation’s biggest employer.

The new AFL chairman is also in the running to pick up almost 248,000 shares, worth $10.2 million at the current price, if the retail and industrials conglomerate hits longterm performance hurdles in coming years.

Wesfarmers disclosed the pay details yesterday as mining titan BHP revealed the remuneration of its chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, had surged 20 per cent to $8.8 million ($US7.1 million) for the past year.

That haul was up from the $US5.9 million Mr Mackenzie pocketed a year earlier when he gave up all of his short-term incentive payments after the collapse of a dam at a mining site in Brazil killed 19 people.

Details of the pay packages are contained in the companies’ annual reports.

They include the value of

share options granted as incentives but may not vest if certain long-term hurdles are not hit.

BHP said Mr Mackenzie’s actual remuneration was $US4.6 million for the year to June, up from $US2.2 million the previous year.

Newly-appointed chairman Ken MacKenzie will earn annual fees of $US880,000, some 8 per cent less than received by his predecessor Jac Nasser.

Mr Goyder’s remuneration package more than doubled to $12.1 million for the year to June, up from $5.5 million in the previous year.

His package included a $4 million bonus and $4.2 million in long-term share payments.

Mr Goyder, who has spent 24 years at Wesfarmers, has emerged as its 39th biggest shareholder with 776,150 shares worth $32 million.

The Perth-based conglomerate has a total market value of $46 billion.

Mr Goyder will hand over the running of Wesfarmers to Rob Scott at the company’s annual meeting in November.

Mr Scott will start on a base pay of $2 million, well below the $3.3 million Mr Goyder was on.

Wesfarmers tweaked incentive payments to put more emphasis on hard targets such as net profit and less emphasis on strategic targets such as gender diversity, succession planning and safety.

BHP’s annual report also reveals the sum at the centre of its dispute with the Australian Taxation Office now stands at $1.1 billion.

Among the issues in dispute, the taxman is claiming $44 million in unpaid taxes and fines that it says are owed under the nation’s controlled foreign companies rules for the period 2012 to 2015.

BHP had previously reported that figure as $18 million for 2012 to 2013.