So basically an ordinary shareholder in Qantas has received no dividend income on their shares but has seen a majority vote through substantial benefits to the board of directors despite their admitted difficulties ?

If I were an ordinary shareholder in such a situation I'd be looking for an exit, however its likely that most of the shares are held by pension funds and the like and its as much in their interests to keep the company and its share value alive than to condemn the few directors who are legally scamming.

You might also like to read up on the breaking news on the Japanese firm Olympus who's directors have been slightly less than honest to its shareholders for decades...

Given that many shareholders (pension funds, fund managers etc) are very transient, are merely betting on the price of the shares and don't actually give a hoot about the long-term prospects of the company or how much the board are paid, there isn't much opportunity for restraint and boards can more or less pay themselves what they like.
Once one of them increases board remuneration, the rest have the "justification" to do the same.

Indeed, the fund managers themselves are probably way overpaid and aren't going to rock the boat.

Which, of course, is why the PM's comments on executive pay were merely an attempt to placate the slightly-stroppier-than-usual plebs.

Yes, once he spotted the [iDaily Wail[/i having a rant about it, he realised that middle England would be interested.
A few tough words about "looking at the problem" and it's all sorted, so that's OK.

A bit like his dealing with banking regulation, he's all mouth and trousers.

Did you know that was all Labour's fault for not regulating tight enough?
Yeah, I know the Tories were forever whinging about regulation being too tight whilst pointing at Ireland as a model economy but let's not let an opportunity to blame Labour go unused, eh?

In the meantime, it seems that we're all helping to pay for two epitomes of [url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/taxpayers-foot-the-bill-for-lossmaking-banks-lobbying-6287846.htmlbanking probity to work against regulation[/url.