Golden Parachutes and the increasingly unacceptable nature of excessive remuneration without regard for good stewardship or actual performance achieved for shareholders and stakeholders, continues to be a red hot topic.

Not just in corporate governance circles, but society in general, as the broader community becomes ever more aware of this sinister form of corporate greed, which essentially rewards failure.

ProNed Australia is committed to advocating the banning of “Golden Parachutes” through lobbying Government to legislate against the practise by ammending the Corporations Act. In fact, I wrote to our Prime Minister at the end of January this year about the matter, and clearly stated our opposition and the reasons why.

Just to clarify, this phrase covers severance agreements that provide a large amount of cash and non-cash compensation to senior executives after a triggering event. The types of events that can activate a Golden Parachute include termination, demotion, resignation following a change of control, or the commencement of legal proceedings.

Getting rid of the Golden Parachute will bring about a positive change in governance across the board and promote a fairer and more accountable landscape at board level. This is certainly my position personally and that of ProNed Australia.

However, I am very interested in hearing your views and what you see are the major areas of concern and the key obstacles for positive change surrounding the whole Golden Parachute issue.

Please take a few minutes to complete the online poll that you can access just by clicking the button at the end called ‘”My view on Golden Parachutes”. There are a few brief questions as well as the opportunity to share your views on the broader implications of the subject.