And although it might be tempting to think that votes against Goyder are personal and a hangover from his performance as chairman of the much-maligned Qantas, this won’t have factored much if at all into the Woodside vote, save for a smattering of retail investors.

As irritated as many shareholders are about the lack of progress on climate, they are also keen to enjoy the financial fruits of robust profits from Woodside.

The vote against Goyder (only about 16 per cent) on Wednesday is the real vote against the company’s climate action, and it wouldn’t matter who was sitting in that role.

His successful re-election suggests he has convinced most large shareholders of the view (as expressed in a letter earlier this month to all investors) that a drastic “change Woodside’s strategy and investment priorities risk eroding value for all shareholders”.

And that’s the rub.

As irritated as many shareholders are about the lack of progress on climate, they are also keen to enjoy the financial fruits of robust profits from Woodside. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

Attacking emissions too hard too early risks short- to medium-term profits and Woodside seems to be taking a cautious (some would say, laggard) position on climate.

It is clearly looking for comfort in numbers, with its chief executive Meg O’Neill telling shareholders at the meeting of the recent walk back by global peers from climate goals that were considered too ambitious.

She said: “We are determined to play our role in addressing climate change. But we won’t make promises that we can’t deliver. So I give you our commitment that we will set goals and make decisions informed by the available science, in line with our capital allocation framework and with our commitment to energy security front of mind.”

A testy Goyder, when asked at the meeting about the large shareholders rejecting its climate plan, suggested not all were necessarily big investors in the company.

He points to the numerous meetings he has had with large investors this year around action on climate change.

His comfortable re-election demonstrates that most were convinced. But that didn’t stop them from voting against the climate action plan and publicly advertising their disapproval of it.

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