Outgoing Telstra chair John Mullen defends telco’s funding of Yes campaign for failed Voice referendum

Telstra’s outgoing chair John Mullen has defended the telco’s support for the failed Voice to Parliament referendum, claiming backing it was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. In his speech to Telstra’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, Mr Mullen said $1 million was given by the telco to fund advertising for the ‘Yes’ campaign. “This was not a decision taken as a result of the personal views of any board or management members individually, and indeed just like the community there are differing views among both our board and management,” he said. “However, where we are all in agreement, is that support is in the best interests of the company and therefore our shareholders.” Mr Mullen — who presided over his seventh and final AGM as chair — said Telstra had been a “long-time supporter” of reconciliation with First Nations people. He added the company was in a strong financial position and was a different entity than when he joined the board 15 years ago. Telstra’s AGM was also hit by a strong protest vote against director Maxine Brenner following calls by proxy advisers not to re-elect her due to her role on the Qantas board. Ms Brenner’s re-election was opposed by 17 per cent of those voting with the proxy group Institutional Shareholder Services claiming there had been “material” governance failures by the Qantas board. Ms Brenner has said she will be retiring from the Qantas board next year. Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady said that, under her watch, Telstra’s priority would be to progress the company’s T25 strategy. Ms Brady claimed customer numbers were growing at a rate much higher than inflation. “We are seeing the positive impact of product simplification, digitisation, answering consumer and small business calls in Australia, and bringing our retail stores in-house,” she said. “The infrastructure investments we are making today — from our intercity fibre network and submarine cable network, to continuing to expand our 5G network – will help enable that future and see us strategically positioned for growth.” For the 2023 financial year, Telstra posted a profit of $2.05 billion, which is a 13.1 per cent rise on the prior corresponding period. Over the same period its earnings grew 8.4 per cent to $7.8b. Ms Brady said that was in line with the company’s 2025 strategy, which set compound annual growth rate targets. Capital expenditure for the current financial year is set to be between $3.6b and $3.7b. “Importantly, we expect to continue to achieve strong cash flow, enabling us to invest for growth and deliver returns to shareholders,” Ms Brady said. Mr Mullen noted “asset values have come down quite sharply”, inferring a possible sale of part of the business could be on the table in the future. His comments come at the same time as Telstra announced it would not sell its InfraCo business due to rising interest rates and inflation impacting the potential sale value. Incoming chair Craig Dunn said the telco was committed to driving value for shareholders. “Telstra is leaner, more agile, and strongly positioned to grow, with a world-class network and infrastructure assets, that will help underpin Australia’s digital economy for decades to come,” he said.