Australia: Qantas shareholders vote against company policy review re company's role in refugee and asylum-seeker deportations
26 October 2018
Qantas shareholders have voted "emphatically" against a move to review the airline's policy of facilitating forced deportations of refugees and asylum seekers.
A resolution to amend the company's constitution to insert a 'Human Rights Due Diligence Clause' was put to a vote at the Qantas annual general meeting....
If passed, it would have paved the way for a comprehensive review of the airline's policy on involuntary transportation.
But the move was defeated, with at least 75 per cent of shareholders voting against the resolution for the constitutional change brought forward by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR).
...Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford told shareholders before the vote on that Qantas can't act as a "third umpire" on individual immigration cases and to do so would undermine the Australian government and the judicial system.
"We do not believe this is in the interests of shareholders or the broader community," Mr Leigh said.
"We don't believe the action is really about Qantas at all, it's about finding different ways to pressure the Australian government and the federal opposition to change its immigration policy," he said.
...Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said the problem with the resolution was that the airline would be forced to make a judgement call on each individual case of forced transportation, saying it was impractical and "just not feasible."