Ardent Leisure CEO Deborah Thomas Media has said she will donate her cash bonus of $167,500 to the Red Cross to assist people affected by the deaths of four people at Dreamworld.
The announcement came hours after the company was forced to defend a vote at Thursday's AGM to award Ms Thomas a performance rights package worth $843,000.
"Any bonus Ms Thomas has relates to the prior year," Ardent chairman Neil Balnaves said.
"The tragedy is only 48 hours old. It is just inappropriate to talk about commercial matters at this time."
On Thursday afternoon, Ms Thomas released a statement saying: "I will be making a personal donation of $167,500, which comprises my entire cash bonus, to the Australian Red Cross via the Dreamworld memorial day event."
It is unclear if the cash bonus is separate to, or forms part of, the performance rights package.
"Red Cross will ensure 100 per cent is directed to support people affected by this tragic event."
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Dreamworld cancels plan to reopen Friday for memorial
It comes after the Dorsett family, who lost Kate Goodchild and Luke Dorsett on Tuesday in an accident on the Thunder River Rapids ride at the Gold Coast theme park, rejected suggestions that Ardent Leisure, the owner of Dreamworld, had offered support to them.
Channel 10 put to Ardent Leisure chief executive Deborah Thomas at a press conference after the AGM on Thursday: "The Dorsett family are actually watching this press conference at the moment and are apparently furious at suggestions that support has been offered to them.
"They say that they've had no direct contact whatsoever, no-one's even reached out to them. They've even sent me her mobile phone number, saying, 'Can someone please call her [a member of the Dorsett family]?'" the reporter said.
"Is this true? Why hasn't anyone actually called the Dorsett family?"
The question came after Ardent Leisure told the press conference it was offering support including financial assistance to the Dorsett family and the families of the two other victims, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low.
Ms Thomas then admitted the company had not directly contacted the family to offer them the support they mentioned they had.
"We didn't know how to contact them, so we have been to the police liaison officer," she said.
"I will not call her now in front of the media, but I am very happy to call her very soon after this meeting."
On Thursday, Dreamworld was forced to cancel a planned memorial day for the four people killed in Tuesday's accident at the amusement park.
Dreamworld theme park had planned to open on Friday for a memorial day,
A statement from Dreamworld said that the theme park wanted to assure the public and park guests that at the time of the incident the park was fully compliant with all required safety certifications.
It explained it regularly invited local and international independent external ride safety auditors and Queensland Workplace Health and Safety representatives to scrutinise its engineering and safety systems against Australian and international standards, "going well beyond our legal requirements".
"We then overlay this with strict operating and testing procedures like rotating staff to prevent fatigue and our unique lock-out tag-out system which prevents a ride from being operated inadvertently."
The 35-year-old theme park, which says there has not been a death prior to this week's incident, added that it was working closely with investigating authorities.
"We support the Mayor and the Premier’s sentiment that we can leave no stone unturned," the statement said.
"Safety of our guests, staff and wildlife is a core value of our business."
However reported that documents released by the Queensland Office of Industrial Relations on Wednesday showed 13 rides were considered "not fit for service" following an inspection four years ago.
The documents also reportedly show that Dreamworld's owner, Ardent Leisure, had gone to court to stop records of safety complaints being released to the Australian Workers' Union in 2015.
Ms Goodchild's husband, David, wasn't on the ride but witnessed the accident.
His father Graham said he was so distraught he couldn't talk about what happened.
"They haven't even told us completely what happened but I know that tonight there will be two very traumatised children coming back home," Graham Goodchild told News Corp from Canberra.
The distraught family of Ms Low, a New Zealand expat living in Sydney, are shocked by the "catastrophic" event.
"The family are traumatised, and kindly request that their privacy be respected as they try to come to terms with this tragic loss," they said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Dorsett and Ms Goodchild's mother Kim Dorsett said her devastated 12-year-old granddaughter was blaming herself for the tragedy.
"I have three children and have lost two of them ... my whole family has been wiped out."
Hundreds of people attended a candlelight vigil outside the theme park on Wednesday night.
People of all ages have been visually upset, as they pay their respects to the victims.
Throughout the day dozens of flowers were left by the local community.
"It was always the first ride I would always go on when I came to the park, just the fact that it was a family friendly ride," one local said.
The Red Cross is working directly with affected families as well as providing counselling and support for grieving members of the community.
With AAP
