At midday yesterday, Western Power chairman Malcolm Macpherson was asked for his resignation by premier Dr Geoff Gallop, who then called the other directors to a meeting where former banker Neil Hamilton was installed as chairman.
Hamilton then went to CEO Stephen van der Mye’s office and informed him he no longer had the confidence of the board, leaving van der Mye under no false impression he wanted him to fall on his sword. Van der Mye obliged and the Melbourne-based corporate change expert departed the Western Power offices almost immediately.
Hamilton was quoted as saying, “he didn’t want to hang around.” The unpopular van der Mye, who had been under fire for a number of months for his handling of the power company, was the state’s highest paid executive.
Hamilton said there had been no discussion of a termination payment and in media reports yesterday, the government indicated it would not be contemplating a payout for the remainder of his contract.
Thee were also calls for the sacking of energy minister Eric Ripper who only on Wednesday said “The managing director has my full support.”
Explaining his about face, Ripper said, “as with anyone for whom I am responsible in this sort of sense, they have my complete confidence until the moment they don’t – and Mr van der Mye doesn’t.”
Opposition leader Colin Barnett said Ripper should resign as well. “I think this is a depurate attempt still by Dr Gallop to blame everyone else except for the Labor Party and his government.
The Gallop government is planning a series of fast tracked options to try to avoid a repeat of the blackouts which have cost the state millions of dollars and have seen bans on businesses and households using airconditioners.
Blame for the outages has been handballed by all players involved. A letter from Epic Energy staff to Ripper objected to the accusation the capacity of the Dampier to Perth gas pipeline was the cause of the problem.
“It is the electricity utility’s responsibility – not Epic Energy’s – to ensure that it has adequate firm gas supplies to meet the demands of its domestic and industrial customers,” the letter was quoted as saying.
