The issue of which company is Australia's worst is peripheral to the human consequences of Hardies' neglect of their employees and the Australian public.

I have a somewhat more compelling interest in this issue than anyone else I know. During the Christmas break from uni in 1975-6, I took a job at Hardies’ asbestos pipe testing laboratory, where I was required to handle raw asbestos. I was given no training in how to protect myself from the materials I was handling, despite the fact that as we now know, Hardies was aware of the dangers at the time. I wasn't even given a face mask, though I remember some used and very clogged ones lying around, so I guess they might have been available if I had been informed about the need for them.

There was asbestos all around me: I will never forget the gritty alkaline taste of asbestos fibres in my mouth, and the peculiar way it settled in my hair and made it feel stiff and somewhat brittle.

I am in good health, but every story about Hardies' misconduct is a reminder of the hideous threat they exposed me to. To me, Bernie Banton's inspiring campaign was also a warning of what could be growing inside me right now. When it looked like the compensation fund might cover the amounts required, there was a little comfort in the thought that if it does hit me, I and (more importantly) my partner will not be sent broke paying for the care needed. The news that the fund is adequate for just two more years is distressing.

Hardies have got themselves into their current position through their own negligence and dissembling. I believe very strongly that if compensating their victims sends them broke, it will still be a small penalty for their negligence in failing to protect me and others from dangers they had long been aware of.

With respect, CJ, for the real and potential victims of Hardies' misconduct, the existence of better or worse corporate citizens is irrelevant.

Excellent topic CJ.

Subsequent contributions all build towards a very telling portrait of corporate abuse of power.

As for Hardie's being the worst? The tobacco companies do it for me. And I m also disgusted when there is direct collusion between government and industry such as between Reith, Howard, Downer, Corrigan and Patricks Stevedores. A sorry episode indeed.

The term 'corporate citizen' is the ultimate oxymoron and needs to be struck permanently from our lexicon.

Examinator - you did not over-think topic at all, rather your summary placed the entire topic in context.

Woulfe - I send you all the hope and luck you need. I worked for a while as a lab-tech at a polymer industrial plant (BASF - Quality Control) and there was little in the way of protection for techs & plant workers. I have no trouble believing your report of working at Hardies.

I also agree that there is no first place for corporate greed and exploitation. That's why I believe the more we speak out, the better - even this little forum.

Show me a large corporation that doesn't act like JH and Ill show you pigs that can fly. This is how capitalism works people.

Dear woulfe,

I wish you All The Best.

Examinator and Fractelle as usual have expressed everyting
so well.

My father worked for Good Years for many decades,
under appaling conditions. He died of a massive
coronary in 1970.

Fractelle is right - we need to raise these issues,
as often as possible so that things
don't get swept under the rug.

Just a bit off topic here - does anyone know what's
happened to Belly?

I'm a bit concerned - he should be posting on this
thread but we haven't heard from him in a while.

I agree with mikk "Show me a large corporation that doesn't act like JH"
What about the bulling, the violation of workers basic rights, what about worker's mental problems of cause the bad working conditions.
It is better the Unions to speak for the worst companies than persons with little information.
Tabaco companies or Hardys was bad mainly of cause their products BUT there are some companies which are very bad because they are VERY BAD EMPLOYERS, OF CAUSE THEIR BEHAVE TO THEIR EMPLOYEES.
Antonis Symeonakis
Adelaide

Perhaps we should be seriously looking to see what other commodities we can export. The “big” Australian based mines have an abominable reputation overseas.

South Africa’s top ten carbon emitters include Australian based mines - BHP Billiton, Anglo Platinum, Harmony Gold, AngloGold Ashanti, Impala Platinum and AngloGold Ashanti. The top ten corporations produce 83% of South Africa’s greenhouse gases.

Barrick and Newmont have a JV in the super pit in Kalgoorlie WA. Both are despised in poor nations.

Barrick’s operations have destroyed livelihoods and the environment around the world. Now, communities from Argentina to Papua New Guinea have organized to demand their basic human rights and resist the exploitation of their natural resources.

Billions of tonnes of arsenic, copper, zinc and other heavy metals have been dumped into once pristine habitats where indigenous people had lived since time immemorial.

BHP Billiton and the operators of the Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea have again been sued, this time for more than $A5.08 billion damages by villagers on the Ok Tedi River.

http://derianga.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/kirsch-cult-surv-quart-no-justice-in-ok-tedi-settlement-20031.pdf

The lawsuit was lodged in the National Court in Port Moresby during 2007, on behalf of 13,000 villagers seeking compensation for destruction of their traditional lands.

Experts have predicted it would take 300 years to clean up the toxic contamination.

While some remediation of lands and rivers in developing countries are now occurring, it is merely a result of communities finding the courage to speak out.

Nevertheless, in Australia, insidious health and environment impacts from mining continue. Have we learnt anything from the James Hardie tragedy?

Who is regulating the regulators and who is holding successive governments to account?:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21504856-401,00.html?from=public_rss

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24880642-2761,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24594868-2761,00.html

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9192