WoolProducers Australia CEO Jo Hall.

PEAK grower body WoolProducers Australia has hit back at what it considers an inference that it expected Australian Wool Innovation to ‘break the law’ regarding a $479,000-plus redundancy payout to former AWI chief executive officer Stuart McCullough.

In October 2021, AWI announced Mr McCullough had been moved out of his CEO role to the newly-created international marketing position of chief marketing and innovation officer, but without a proper executive search or interview process. In April this year, AWI said Mr McCullough had been made redundant and a termination figure of $479,531 was attributed to the CMIO position in AWI’s latest annual report.

In a media conference after AWI’s 2024 annual general meeting last Friday, AWI chairman Jock Laurie responded to a question regarding Mr McCullough’s redundancy payments and its potential impact on the WoolPoll vote.

AWI chairman Jock Laurie: ‘what did they want us to do – break the law?’

Mr Laurie responded to the question acknowledging and referring to criticism from WoolProducers Australia about Mr McCullough’s $479,000-plus redundancy payout.

“It is hard to say but…..I wouldn’t…..yes there was some criticism, but what did they want us to do – break the law?” Mr Laurie said.

“And let’s be honest, I am not going to end up in court trying to justify why I didn’t meet a contractual agreement.

“So if that was their argument (WPA) then good on them, they can go and argue that,” he said.

“I am a director of a company, we have got responsibilities, we have got obligations under the law and we will meet them.”

A media statement from WoolProducers chief executive officer Jo Hall on Friday refuted the alleged inference and said at no stage did WPA expect or imply that AWI should break the law.

The statement said WoolProducers was approached by a journalist following the release of the AWI 2023-24 Annual Report seeking comment on the redundancy payout paid to Mr McCullough.

AWI CEO Stuart McCullough at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.

“The journalist had already confirmed with AWI that the figure was paid to one person and WoolProducers were asked to comment, which we did and are entitled to do,” Ms Hall’s statement said.

“While WoolProducers made comment that the payout figure seemed extraordinarily high, we did not question the legality or entitlement of the payment.

“WoolProducers did draw attention to the fact that the Australian National Audit Office found there was no documentation from the AWI board for the creation of the Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer role that Mr McCullough was employed in after fulfilling his role as CEO,” Ms Hall’s statement said.

The WPA statement said WoolProducers expected a retraction from Mr Laurie “to rectify this erroneous claim.”