The chairman of one of Australia’s biggest electricity generators has defended a $720,000 payment to his predecessor after she was seriously injured during a site visit two years ago.
Under questioning from shareholders at AGL’s annual general meeting in Sydney on Friday, chairman Miles George declined to give details about how Patricia McKenzie was hurt in the August 2023 incident.
“The details of the injury that Patricia sustained are personal for Patricia, and so I won’t be disclosing any of the details of the actual injury, where it occurred, how it occurred, or anything else,” he said in response to a question from shareholder activist Stephen Mayne.
“That’s Patricia’s business.”
Mr George said only that the injury was serious and required multiple surgeries.
He said AGL engaged expert independent advice to determine a compensation arrangement for Ms McKenzie and the outcome was “no worse and no better” than if any other employee at AGL had been injured on the job.
In addition to the $720,000 payment, the company paid $11,000 towards her medical fees.
Mr George denied that the payout caused AGL’s director remuneration payments to exceed a $2.75 million cap set by shareholders, saying the payment was not like director fees but instead compensation for a serious injury.
The payment was first disclosed in AGL’s annual report in August.
Ms George stepped down from AGL’s board in February.
In other matters, Mr George acknowledged that shareholders had expressed disappointment to him about AGL’s share price, which is down almost 20 per cent year-to-date.
He said AGL’s recently announced outlook for 2025/26 had been a key factor in the decline, but the guidance reflected AGL’s significant investment in delivering its long-term strategy.
“This ongoing investment is expected to result in increased levels of depreciation and amortisation over the medium term, which will impact the level of underlying net profit after tax in future years,” Mr George said.
Last financial year, AGL acquired 21 battery and six solar projects in development, an electric vehicle software platform and two pumped hydro storage projects in NSW’s Hunter region.
This year, it has acquired a large virtual power plant in South Australia from Tesla, comprising solar panels and about 7000 Powerwall home batteries, and has made a final decision to move forward with a battery project in the Port Stephens region in NSW.
Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, the tech billionaire, set a new direction for AGL in 2022 when he successfully torpedoed its plan to spin off its coal generation business.
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