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Most of us would be very familiar with the key facts: the hazards associated with asbestos, the actions of James Hardie in relation to their asbestos products, and the efforts of Bernie Banton to hold them to account. Familiarity with the people and the events don't make them any less shocking or intolerable now, and shouldn't make it any less shocking in years to come. And the full asbestos story still has many years to play out.
The most moving aspect of the issue is the human tragedy, but what sometimes escapes us are: the enormity of the impact, the size of the deception, the extended circle of people this tragedy has enveloped, the seeming randomness with which mesothelioma strikes, and (due to the long period of progression of the disease) the very real risk that it may still touch our lives or the lives of those we know and love. Many experts suggest that we are yet to see the peak of asbestos related disease.
It is difficult to blame anyone other than the directors of James Hardie, stretching from the mid 1980's (when they stopped producing the product) all the way back to 1926 when it was widely known how hazardous asbestos is to human health. Equally culpable are companies such as Hancock mining and CSR who operated the mine at Wittenoom until the late 60's. They didn't stop because of the impact it was having on human health, but because it became unprofitable.
The Hardie's directors were successfully prosecuted by ASIC for misleading investors with a press release that claimed an asbestos compensation fund was "fully funded" to meet claims against it. On another related matter they couldn't be prosecuted - that through their actions they sought to deny access to compensation for former employees and members of the public who had been maimed by their product. There are few (if any) cases of white collar crime where the adverse effects have been more avoidable, more widespread and more profound. Asbestosis and Mesothelioma are terrible ways to die. If they had acted as they did, under current WH&S legislation former Hardie's directors would likely find themselves facing much more serious penalties.
A key part of the problem is that we don't, as a society, accept the idea that 'white collar crime' is a serious offense. White collar criminals are treated differently despite the fact that they can cause much more harm. We don't hold company directors especially accountable for their decisions unless it impacts on shareholder value, and then only sometimes. Directors almost always get their pay rises and their bonuses regardless of what shareholders think.
While Boards are not held accountable, they will continue to make decisions that in turn lead to the kind of injustice which was visited upon Bernie Banton and his family, and on the many thousands of others who suffered the same fate as Bernie, but whose names we never learned. Based on the sentences handed down to the Hardie directors, white collar crime pays. And based on the recent court decision to reduce the suspension terms of former James Hardie directors, it pays really well.
In spite of their behaviour those directors will be eligible to resume their corporate careers early next year. Their victims are mostly dead or dying.
The former Hardie Directors, by their actions or inaction, contributed to people's death, increased the suffering of the terminally ill, and likely further shortened lives which were unfairly cut short by James Hardie. They sought to abandon people in great need by taking the company overseas under opaque and questionable circumstances. That they could soon be returning to any boardroom should be a smear on corporate Australia. But I suspect it will barely cause a ripple.
As a nation of shareholders (the owners of these companies), I hope all our memories are very long. I hope we are completely unforgiving. I hope we won't allow our businesses to put profits before lives. I hope we learn and commit to memory the names of all the former Hardie directors (available here). I hope that the moment any one of them seek to gain a directorship or a board position on any Australian company, the voices of angry shareholders will cry out because we know right from wrong. And we expect better. And, I'd even go so far as to say... we owe it to Bernie.
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If change then needs to follow, we should insist they do so incrementally, we should demand they are evidence-based changes, and we must keep watch to ensure the changes don't preference the already privileged and further expose the vulnerable. I also hope that we are able to ask government and the regulators to tighten conditions in areas where it is needed. The area of white collar crime might be a good place to start.
I was never fortunate enough to meet Bernie Banton, but I know he was a great Australian. I know our country is poorer for having lost him, as are his family and friends. I know that James Hardie, through their action or inaction contributed to Bernie Banton's death, and they know it too. Bernie just wanted an apology, and he should have got it. His wife and family still deserve to hear it sooner rather than later.
The conservative mantra that Government needs to be small and just needs to get out of the way would've only served to exacerbate the appalling cost so many innocent people have paid for the actions of James Hardie. Innocent people are still to pay that same price in the decades to come. As things were, Hardie still managed to slip out of the country like a thief in the night. Government intervention was in part responsible for bringing them to account. And without sufficient government oversight, Hardie would still be making and selling asbestos products if they could turn a profit from it.
I believe government has a big role to play in ensuring we live in a fair society... James Hardie, CSR and Hancock mining were/are not alone, and Asbestos exposure is not the only issue.
What are your thoughts?
Added note: next week is National Asbestos Awareness week. For more information about managing the potential hazards that Asbestos poses in the home, click the following link