Letter no issue for Air NZ
Airline chair says Grant Robertson’s interest in the company is business as usual
Air New Zealand chair Dame Therese Walsh says it is normal to discuss board appointments with shareholding minister Grant Robertson, and it is already working to renew its directors.
Opposition MPS say a letter from Robertson to the airline showed the Government was trying to exert inappropriate influence on the board of Air NZ, in which it has a 52 per cent stake. In what one called “an aggressive letter”, Robertson says as majority shareholder the Government expects to be involved in the process that will lead to board renewal.
Walsh characterised this as business as usual, saying: “As is the normal process, we will discuss candidates for board appointments with the Minister of Finance in his capacity as shareholding minister.”
She said the airline was moving to a new phase in its recovery from the devastation of the pandemic and there would be changes.
“In light of the upcoming retirement of Jan Dawson as signalled at the annual shareholder meeting, and some directors entering the final phase of their tenure, we are assessing the mix of abilities required as the airline moves out of the survive phase and into revive,” she said in a statement to the Herald.
She said the board had worked extremely hard during the past year. “The balance of skills and experience on the board has served us well and we continue to review our skills and diversity matrices which we do annually.” Robertson’s letter sets out in detail the Government’s expectations of the airline, including being involved in board renewal.
It was written at the same time as a $600 million extension of a backstop loan to $1.5 billion, which means the airline can defer a capital raising.
In Parliament on Wednesday, Robertson said directors on the Air New Zealand board took the post knowing the Government had a majority stake.
He said board members understood they were part of something with a massive legacy to New Zealand, which mattered to people all around the country and had a role in economic development.
Robertson defended his right to set out in detail expectations of the airline. “We would be letting New Zealanders down. We’d have a 52 per cent stake and we’d be washing our hands of it and saying it doesn’t matter — that hasn’t worked for New Zealand when it comes to an airline in the past, and that is why that is in there.”
He has been attacked for making the directors’ commercial obligations under the mixed ownership model incompatible with the Government’s expectations.
In response, Robertson said: “The Government — the 52 per cent shareholder — is expressing its expectations, exactly what a majority shareholder would do in the private sector as well; that’s exactly the way it plays out. We make clear our expectations as the majority shareholder.”