The old boys network is alive and well in Melbourne if yesterday’s annual meeting of AFIC, the $6 billion JB Were-affiliated listed investment company, is any guide.

AFIC chairman Bruce Teele is a conservative pillar of the Melbourne business establishment and yesterday he was staunchly protecting and defending a couple of old mates in BHP-Billiton chairman Don Argus and former AMP and Coles chairman Stan Wallis.

Teele, Argus and Wallis – average age 69 and average length of service on the AFIC board 23 years – were all up for e-election. Don Argus gave a little speech talking up his credentials but then the chairman completely shielded him from answering any questions.

The big question for Don was whether or not he advised Stan Wallis to hire John Fletcher as Coles Myer CEO in 2001. This is the extract from a letter Solly Lew wrote to Wallis in 2002 that was leaked to The AFR earlier this year:

When we discussed the appointment of John Fletcher you told the board that you had had discussions with Don Argus, John Fletcher’s former chairman (at Brambles). I have known Don Argus for many years. As a director concerned about the appointment of a non-retailer to the position of CEO of Coles Myer, I felt I needed to know a little more about John Fletcher. I called Don Argus and he told me that he had never had a discussion with you regarding John Fletcher … What sorts of games have been going on?”

When asked to clear this issue up once and for all, Teele protected Argus by refusing to let him answer the question, even though I said it would effect how some shareholders would vote on his re-election.

“I’m not going to ask Don that, it’s not the business of the meeting. If anyone wants to make their decision based on those rumors then that is their business,” Teele said.

Bruce even had the cheek to declare that if Wallis hadn’t asked Argus about Fletcher across the AFIC board table “it would prove that we have very good corporate governance”.

Teele and Terry Campbell then launched a spirited defence of Stan Wallis’s abysmal record. “In my opinion, Stan probably did more to rescue and turn AMP around than anybody ever knows,” was the Teele offering whilst Campbell declared that Stan “had an excellent business career”.

Wallis was a no show, despite being up for re-election, but at least a handful of shareholders at the meeting voted against him. The final proxies were 87.38 million in favour and a disappointing 3.636 million against.

I’ve done a video today getting stuck into Stan Wallis and the lively direct exchanges with Teele and Campbell have been edited down to this 17 minute MP3 file.