The company suffered a first strike against the remuneration report with a shareholder vote of about 80 per cent against the report.

A second strike next year could potentially lead to a spill of the board.

Director Todd Sampson survived against a push to oust him however, 33 per cent of proxies were against his re-election and Sampson told the AGM that his marketing experience was needed.

“Of all the times in Qantas’s history this is when my experience is most valuable,” Sampson said.

Chairman Richard Goyder was not disguising the fact that the national carrier was in severe trouble stating “there has been a substantial loss of trust” in the airline and the votes against the remuneration report was almost a complete reversal of the 90-plus per cent support in recent years.

“But please know this: we hear the message this strong vote sends, particularly in response to broader frustration with past events, and it galvanises our efforts to restore your confidence,” he said.

“There are things we got wrong, things we should have handled better, things we should have fixed faster and for all of those, we apologise,” he told shareholders.

The issues included the loss of a High Court case against the Transport Workers Union over the sacking of workers during Covid and an ACCC court action over 8000 ghost flights and credits for cancelled flights during the pandemic.

Shareholders are yet to vote on proposals included the re-election of director Todd Sampson and Belinda Hutchinson and Goyder said both were integral to the company’s renewal.

Goyder said he was looking ahead.

“We have some big challenges in front of us but we’re in a strong position to meet them,” he said.

Chief executive Vanessa Hudson said she acknowledged “the relationship with our people has been strained”.

She said she had reached out to unions and wanted to re-set that relationship and there had been positive response. There had also been commercial changes made to make it easier for people to deal with the airline.

She said as the airline’s new chief executive she was determined to make sure Qantas regained its position as one of the nation’s most trusted brands.

“(We are) determined to be the company that you, as owners, are proud of – that delivers value for all stakeholders and gets the balance right,” she said.

“Doing this won’t be easy and will take time, but I am confident we will succeed because of the incredible passion our people have for Qantas and what it has long represented.

There was still $520 million retained by Qantas relating to credits from flights that were cancelled during Covid.

“We are not going to rest until that is zero,” Hudson said.

Goyder also said the company decided to support the Yes case for the voice to parliament because the company had supported Aboriginal recognition in the constitution since 2014 and believed that it was important to support what had previously been done to back reconciliation.

He faced a short round of boos after shutting down questions over ethics and the sale of shares by former chief executive Alan Joyce.

Goyder said the share sales was done with legal compliance.