"Ah the melodrama. So they did it deliberately? Tell me who did?
Bad judgement yes, mistakes made yes, but hardly willful."

That’s the style Yabby – When one starts to look stoopid, squeal foul because despite the irrefutable, officially documented evidence in these matters, there will always be grovellers and avaricious sycophants who persist with the nonsense that gross negligence, environmental carnage and corporate greed is good for the economy.

The evidence of willful neglect (of which you deny) reveals that BP was charged with criminal violations at its Texas refinery and hit with a record $87.4 million fine last year.

In March this year, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced dozens more safety violations occurring at the BP-Husky refinery in Toledo, Ohio. In the most recent inspection, OSHA said it 'found 38 per-instance, willful violations including 26 instances of deficient pressure relief.'

BP previously pleaded guilty to a US Clean Water Act violation for a 2006 spill that released 212,252 gallons of oil on to the tundra, the largest recorded on Alaska’s North Slope.

In Australia, it took 200 years and the deaths of an estimated 3,000 NSW coal miners before a mining company (Xstrata) was successfully prosecuted for OHS breaches in NSW.

BHP Billiton's 2009 A/R reveals that the company managed to kill off seven of its workers for the year. Wow - not bad compared to 11 deaths in 2008 and 17 in 2004. All up, that's around 50 fatalities since 2004. But unlike Joe Citizen, it's business as usual, nobody goes to gaol and the fines are mere petty cash for the mining barons and the unethical shareholders rejoice on receipt of the blood money.

Well now it could be tough for the greed merchants because the gangrene has set in and the amputations are overdue. Screwing the taxpayer, plundering the resources, breaching all emissions' guidelines and freely bludging off the environment is no longer acceptable practice in an enlightened community.

Dickie dear, yes we know you have a chip on your shoulder about
mining companies, but you remain a hypocrite, demanding their
products, so that you can lead your cushy lifestyle.

*BHP Billiton's 2009 A/R reveals that the company managed to kill off seven of its workers for the year.*

Hang on, my nephew works for one of their contractors, on their
sites. According to him, they are totally pedantic about safety,
to the point of irritation. But then you clearly are unable to
examine these things objectively.

Fact is that mines are indeed dangerous places, many workers drink
too much, take drugs, despite the testing, make bad judgement
calls etc. But of course its easy to just wave your finger at those
"evil corporations".

People get killed driving cars every day, our hospitals make crucial
mistakes which kill people. Fact is, us humans are not as smart as
we sometimes think and we are certainly not infallible.

Yes, BP are being shown to have been the cowboy of the oil industry.
It could well bankrupt the company, fair enough. But nobody went
out to cause willfull damage, that is and remains the point.

The regulators had a duty to monitor and approve what BP were doing,
and were clearly not doing their job. For that you can thank a
politician, a Mr Bush, elected by the people!

‘The regulators had a duty to monitor and approve what BP were doing,
and were clearly not doing their job. For that you can thank a
politician, a Mr Bush, elected by the people!’

My but you do speak with forked tongue Cowboy and it is noted (constantly ) that you duckshove the criminal activities of your beloved ‘free’ marketeers onto the regulator that you and the other darlings of the tea party and certified right wing nut jobs, despise.

However, your side-step, soft shoe shuffle , is proof that the self-regulated mining industry cannot be trusted and will descend to unconscionable levels of depravity to make a fast buck by bludging off the environment and spilling the blood of the defenceless.

And similar to the mining industry in this country, the US’s coal ash industry, has for ten years, manipulated reports and publications about the dangers of coal combustion waste, by coercing the US EPA into allowing the multibillion-dollar coal ash industry to have virtually unfettered access to the EPA during the Bush administration. The coal industry was permitted to ghost write EPA's publications and official reports to dumb down the toxic effects of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, dioxins, selenium and radionuclides in coal waste, which your industry also dumps on commercial crops in Australia. Very economical – yay Cowboy!

For the mining industry, which you defend, it’s "No rules, no regulations, just drill baby drill.” If that doesn’t work, there are always the dodgy ‘sustainability’ and emissions’ reports, lobbyists, bribes, threats, standover tactics and plenty of corporate and political whores to perform the media’s dirty work.

Alas, your Occupational Health and Safety ‘regulated’ feudal kingdom which continues to send workers to their deaths, blasts the crap out of communities, fouls whole towns, rivers, oceans and slaughters tens of millions of native animals annually with impunity is about to be handcuffed – one way or another. Kindly pass on that message to your obtuse leader Cowboy – the ‘honourable’ Premier Barnett aka Barney Rubble who has recently budgeted millions of dollars to subsidise a duplicitous and corrupt mining industry.

Deary me Dickie dear, your aging brain cells are showing, they
really are. Now we know that the brain works by association, but
we can also reason about things, if we are still able to. So
either you are being deceptive, stupid, or simply too old.

*For the mining industry, which you defend, it’s "No rules, no regulations, just drill baby drill.*

Nope, thats a famous would be politician, who happens to be female,
just like you. Should I conclude your guilt by association now?

*that you and the other darlings of the tea party and certified right wing nut jobs, despise.*

There we go. Despite my posts about the requirements for balance and
regulation, your attempt at guilt by association is either part
of your deceptive nature, or you are going downhill fast!

Fact is, that unlike you, I am not a hypocrite. I admit that we need
mining, if we decide to live lives beyond the loin cloth and spear
era. Last time I checked, it was affecting about 1% of our landmass.

I admit that we need investment in the mining industry, all the better
if its Australian investment, so that wealth stays here and helps
to pay your pension. We don't really want to be owned by the Chinese.

There are good and bad in every industry.

I don't practise guilt
by association as you do, but then I can still think about these
things at my age :)

If you really have a bone to pick with particular mining companies,
so buy 20 shares and go to their AGM. Tell them what you think.
You might even get a free cup of tea

"There was no debate or consultation about the GST (the never ever GST).

Nor was there any debate about Workchoices. These were a done deal."

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=10542#173481

My recollection is that the GST was part of the policy platform taken to an election.
Workchoices is viewed by many as being significant in the ousting of the Lib's from power.

"Never ever" is not so bad if voters get a chance to consider a politicians change of mind on an issue before voting, a whole different matter if a major contested change is brought in without that step. Voters tend to be less than unimpressed with politicians implementing major platform changes which were not part of a published policy at the previous election.

R0bert

Sheer jabberwanky Cowboy and total nonsense, the definition meaning a hissy fit of rambling ad hominen, which in your deluded mind, resembles a civilized language but in fact is meant only to obfuscate the evidence and confuse the jabberwanker's victims.

And zero response to my assertion that the recidivist criminal activities of the mining industry are the social, legal and corporate responsibility of the mining industry - not some state regulatory industry sycophant. For instance: Who should acknowledge responsibility for Joe Citizen's dangerous driving? Joe Citizen or the regulator?

And who has acknowledged responsibility for the criminal activities of Australia's mining industry in developing countries, several ruled by despotic governments and brutal militia? Certainly not our hit and run mining industry! Where is the Royal Commission?

http://saverapurapu.blogspot.com/2009/08/pure-lip-service-for-environmental_17.html

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/185136/judge-in-marcopper-case-gets-inaction-complaint

And who has paid to remediate the carnage offshore, including the Ok Tedi and Fly rivers in Papua New Guinea which an expert claims will take 300 years to self-remediate?

A 2007 bi-partisan parliamentary enquiry into a mining environmental and health catastrophe in WA revealed that "industry regulation is grossly inadequate and the Committee identified major failings in Departments of Environment regulatory function and shortcomings in other regulatory agencies and the irresponsible and unlawful conduct of industry."

"Balance and regulation" Cowboy? What about a Royal Commission?

So am I correct when I assume you want to reward the mining industry with exemptions from a carbon tax, a super profits tax and zero compensation for the thousands of victims of these shoddy operations where currently (and despite 'regulation') 250 Australian citizens have been forced offshore to commence a class action with allegations of illnesses including cancers, asthma, allergies, skin ailments and even mortalities caused with impunity by a rogue mining company over some 20 years.

This rogue miner cosily shares an office complex with the Department of Environment and Conservation and has "chairs" in many of our places of learning whilst trashing the environment!

Cowboy - Do me a favour and spare us from anymore of your defective, windbagging diatribe.