James Hardie: "Appalling and insulting"

James Hardie has marked Asbestos Awareness Week with another 
two-fingered salute to Australians dying from contact with its 
products, announcing that it would reward disgraced former CEO, 
Peter Macdonald, with a $77,000 a month consultancy.

A special commission of inquiry found evidence that Macdonald had 
broken trade practices and corporations laws during James 
Hardie's three-year campaign to rid itself of liabilities to 
asbestos disease sufferers. In the wake of those findings, James 
Hardie softened Macdonald's resignation with a $10 million 
severance package.

Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, labelled last week's 
announcement by company chair, Meredith Hellicar, "appalling and 
insulting".

"Only James Hardie could do this in Asbestos Awareness Week", Mr 
Robertson said. "Everything they do reflects how far out of touch 
their directors are with the expectations of the Australian 
community."

Macdonald and chief financial officer, Peter Shafron, were key 
architects of a scheme that saw James Hardie relocate to the 
Netherlands. To facilitate its 2001 corporate restructure, the 
company told the NSW Supreme Court it would leave partly-paid 
shares worth more than a billion dollars in Australia for the 
benefit of creditors.

That arrangement was cancelled at a secret meeting of directors, 
leaving thousands of asbestos disease sufferers without access to 
compensation.

As a consultant, Macdonald will make in a month the average 
amount sufferers are awarded in compensation for their lifetimes.

Whether or not victims of Hardies' products ever see that 
compensation is now subject to negotiations between the company 
and the ACTU.

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said negotiations were "heading for 
crisis" unless the company removed "unfair and unreasonable 
conditions" and immediately bailed out MRCF, the foundation it 
created to compensate victims.

MRCF directors are considering liquidation because James Hardie 
is playing hardball over promised funding. The foundation needs 
an immediate injection of $85 million to meet existing claims but 
says James Hardie directors are making that conditional on 
receiving indemnities against legal action.

The Hardie situation was exposed, and brought to a head by a 
relentless union campaign, spearheaded by the Australian 
Manufacturing Workers' Union NSW branch.

The union's Secretary, Paul Bastian, said no amount of Hellicar 
spin-doctoring could alter the fact that James Hardie had set out 
to "rob" victims and their families. He pointed out that at the 
time of the restructure, Macdonald had given assurances the 
company would "fully fund" victims but that when MRCF's $2 
billion shortfall had been made public, the California-based CEO 
had denied "legal or moral" responsibility.

Mr Bastian said there was only one option open to the company: it 
must deliver on its original promise by putting sufficient money 
into MRCF, and it must do it now.

"Australians have to ask themselves, how low can a company go?" 
he asked. "Is it possible to sink any lower than Meredith 
Hellicar's James Hardie? 

"I don't think so."

Pink slip alert

Meanwhile, NSW is on the brink of becoming the first state to 
institute a "pink slip" that would alert householders to the 
presence of asbestos.

Following the lead of councils, including Holdroyd and Ashfield, 
the state ALP caucus has adopted a policy that means dwellings 
will have to be subjected to asbestos audits before being sold. 
It is expected to become law next year.

The plan was devised by the AMWU to try and stop home owners and 
renovators being added to the thousands of Australians 
contracting asbestos-related lung diseases every year.

It requires vendors to undertake asbestos audits and have 
properties containing the killer fibres added to a register that 
would alert buyers, and future occupiers, to the whereabouts and 
condition of the product. MP Paul Lynch estimates the audits 
could be done for as little as $150 by qualified assessors.

More than half the homes built in Sydney since the 1940s when 
asbestos was a standard construction product, are believed to 
contain asbestos products.

Asbestos is understood to be safe while it remains intact but 
becomes a health risk when it breaks or starts to crumble. 
Medical experts say that inhaling one asbestos fibre can lead to 
asbestosis or incurable mesothelioma in later life.