Grain grower labels CBH voting process a ‘disgrace’ amid co-op turmoil

Marchagee grain grower Michael O’Callaghan has already cast his vote in the latest CBH poll, throwing his support behind Trevor Badger and labelling the whole voting process a “disgrace”. Mr O’Callaghan, pictured, is about 40 per cent of the way through seeding, having done lupins and canola, and is moving on to seeding wheat. He delivers the bulk of his crop to CBH each year, mostly to the Marchagee, Coorow or Carnamah bin. He penned a long letter to grain growers this week, calling for the board to “withdraw” the process to try to remove Mr Badger from the board. Mr O’Callaghan said the board’s decision to dredge up “past breaches” that had already been dealt with were “wrong”. In a document posted to the CBH website on April 16, the board detailed allegations about Mr Badger’s conduct as a director dating back to 2012. Mr O’Callaghan said he believed the bid to remove Mr Badger all came down to his alleged unauthorised disclosure of the identity of a woman who was at the centre of a whistleblower report about inappropriate comments made by former chairman Wally Newman in 2018. The comments were fully investigated at the time but leaked during the recent director election campaign. Mr O’Callaghan said he was confused as to why the CBH boardroom would have even known the woman’s name to begin with. “First and more importantly, the members of CBH do not need to know the woman’s name,” he said. “Why, in the boardroom, would a chairman or someone from CBH management tell 12 or more people: ‘this is the woman’s name please don’t tell anyone’. “The biggest issue, and what started all of this, were the allegedly offensive comments made a long time ago.” Mr O’Callaghan was a member of CBH’s 16-person Grower Advisory Council for eight years, on and off between 2005 and 2016. His time on the council coincided with Mr Badger’s time on the same committee. A firm co-operative supporter, Mr O’Callaghan said the entire situation puzzled him. “There are some very good directors on the CBH board at the moment, so this action puzzles me even more,” he said. “What is going wrong within the CBH board of directors?” Mr O’Callaghan was busy seeding this week, but cast his vote through the CBH website. He said it would be hard to pick a “worse date in a whole year” to give members time to vote and consider the topic. “In the middle of May almost all grain-growing farmers in the whole of WA will be extraordinarily busy,” Mr O’Callaghan said. “If there was rain four days before the meeting or coming four days after the meeting no farmer will stop seeding and attempt to access a home computer or laptop to tune in.”