Australian Trans-National Companies

Australians like to think that "their"
corporations are somehow different to
other transnational corporations. They
like to believe that somehow they have
different moral and ethical standards to
foreign transnationals. Well the present
legal debate about the plight of the
Papuan New Guinea villagers who live
down stream of the Ok Tedi and Fly
River has torn major holes into this little
fantasy. It looks like the "Big Australian"
the flagship of Australia's transnational
corporations has used every trick in the
book to generate a tidy profit for its
shareholders.

The "Big Australian" in conjunction with
the Papua New Guinea government (also
a shareholder in this joint venture) began
production at Ok Tedi in 1984. Initially
the company and the government had
planned to build a tailings dam (common
practice in any major mining venture in
Australia) to hold the by products of
mining. Unfortunately BHP and the
government seemed to have "forgotten"
that the Ok Tedi mine was situated in a
region that is prone to landslides and
earthquakes. In their wisdom they
decided that it was technic@lly impossible
to build a tailings dam. (In 1995 they still
keep saying they're working on it).

Instead of waiting to find a technological
solution to the problem they decided that
it was important that mining began as
soon as possible. Well you understand
they had invested lots of money in the
project and they needed to generate a
profft for their shareholders. So in their
unfailing wisdom they decided that the
local inhabitants were the disposable
factor in their plans (well they and the
government needed the money didn't
they) and they began mining. Since 1984
they have discharged over 80,000 tons of
tailings per day into the Ok Tedi and Fly
River. Over ten years down the track the
local inhabitants find that their gardens
and environment are devastated. People
who have lived in these areas for
generations now find that they are
strangers in their own land (an all too
familiar occurrence in many areas of the
world where mining occurs).

As far as the Papuan New Guinea
government was concerned, the
dispossession of the local inhabitants was
the price that the country needed to pay in
order to have access to that all important
cargo cult manna - foreign currency.
Unfortunately nobody had told the local
inhabitants that they were the disposable
cog in this little equation. By 1994 the
local inhabitants realised that they would
, receive no justice or for that matter
compensation from their own
government, so they, in conjunction with
Slater and Gordon a major Melbourne law
firm decided to launch a four billion
dollar compensation claim in the
Victorian Supreme Court. They chose to
launch their legal action in Melbourne
Australia because BHP the "friendly
transnational" has its headquarters in
Melbourne.

The launch of this legal action finally
prodded the "Big Australian" into taking
some action. In a move that highlights
the power transnational corporations have
over governments in developing nations,
B HP and the Papua New Guinea
government decided that the best way to ]
nip this little act of legal rebellion in the
bud was by the Papua New Guinea
government passing legislation that would
make it illegal to mount any court action
for compensation and make it illegal for
anyone to actually be involved in
investigations that could lead to a
compensation case. By this time the
proverbial shit had hit the fan because the
plight of the Ok Tedi and Fly River
people was not only known in Papua New
Guinea, but also in Australia and the
world.

The Victorian Supreme Court in
Melbourne has found the "Big Australian"
in criminal contempt of the courts and in
its wisdom has decided that the local
inhabitants have a case to mount. In
manoeuvring's behind the scenes the
Victorian Attorney General is about the
appeal the Victorian Supreme Courts
decision that found BHP in criminal
contempt of the Supreme Court. It looks
like the Attorney General feels that the
courts may have overstepped their
jurisdiction. If this appeal is not
successful BHP will begin its own appeal
process. We all know how these people
and corporations who have access to large
sums of money seem to be able to
manipulate the legal system to their own
lo@g ermadvantage.

As this saga continues, the OK Tedi mine
continues to pour 80,000 tons of tailings
into the OK Tedi and Fly River per day
and the local inhabitants have nowhere to
go (except possibly the sprawling urban
slums around Papua New Guinea towns).
It's amazing that BHP and the Papua
Guinea government have not learnt the
lesson of Bougainville. CRA and the
Papua New Guinea governments inability
to deal with the traditional landowners
grievances with the Bougainville mine led
to the closure of the mine, a rebellion
which is still going on and has led to the
deaths of over 3,000 people. It will be
interesting to note whether the local
people on the OK Tedi and Fly River will
receive any justice from the Australian
legal system. If they don't it's possible
that the Papua New Guinea governmen@
and BHP will be faced with another
armed rebellion. Those Australians who
have shares in BHP (the gentle corpoMte
giant) and many do, now have to make a
very important moral, ethical and
economic decision. Do they continue to
support BHP and squirrel away their
profits or do they pull their money out
and reinvest it in ethically sound projects?

ANARCHIST AGE WEEKLY REVIEW 168
PO BOX 20, PARKVILLE, VIC 3052
AUSTRALIA

Monetary contributions welcome!


