Pingrup farmer Trevor Badger has no plans to nominate for a new seat on the CBH board after being removed following a dispute with other directors.

Pingrup farmer Trevor Badger — who was ousted from the board of Australia’s biggest co-operative last week — says he won’t nominate for another seat despite being confident of a landslide win. Members of Co-operative Bulk Handling voted Mr Badger, a director of 14 years, off the board on Friday by a razor thin margin at a special general meeting, called after the board lost confidence in him for breaching confidentiality. Of CBH’s 3800 members, 772 voted for the resolution to remove Mr Badger, representing 51.09 per cent of votes cast — 739 voted against. Mr Badger has always denied the allegations, which relates to disclosing the identity of a woman to whom former chairman Wally Newman directed inappropriate language at an industry event. Speaking yesterday, Mr Badger said while the co-operatives rules say he could not stand for election in the seat he had previously held, he could put himself forward for another seat, recently vacated by Mr Newman, who resigned as a director in April after being rolled as chairman. CBH’s nine grower directors have seats allocated across five zones, and are voted in by their peers. Vacant seats previously held by Mr Badger and Mr Newman are in the same zone — District Four which isoften referred to as the Albany zone. “So many people have called me to say they want me stand in Wally’s vacant seat, and technically I could,” Mr Badger said. “But (CBH chairman) Simon Stead and (deputy chairman) Natalie Browning need clear air to get on with running the business.” Mr Badger said the close result showed opposition to the board’s recommendation for his removal, and he was confident if he stood again it would result in a “landslide” win. “But if I did get back on, the result of the vote shows about half of members, who are located across the whole state, would not want me there.” Mr Badger ruled out standing in future years. “But of course, that doesn’t preclude me from changing my mind,” he said.