RIO TINTO HUNTER VALLEY NO. 1 COALMINE JOBS
The Hon. JAN BURNSWOODS [5.20 p.m.]: I draw attention to a matter that I was distressed to see reported in the paper today - the resumption of hostilities on the part of the mining company Rio Tinto against its workers and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and, in particular, the workers union. I draw attention to a comment made by Tony Maher, President of the mining division of the CFMEU that all but two of the 30 union delegates at Hunter Valley No. 1 mine have been sacked. I say that it is a preplanned payback. One of the many things that concern me about this report is the fact that it is no coincidence that Rio Tinto, which has embarked for many years on a planned campaign against the CFMEU, should have put its activities on hold during the Federal election campaign.
Obviously, neither the company nor its friends in the Howard Government wished to have these kinds of issues splashed all over the media while the Federal election campaign was in progress. Now that the Howard Government has won office, Rio Tinto has resumed its long battle to try to drive the CFMEU out of the mining industry. I remind honourable members that I have spoken in this House on many occasions about the Vickery dispute near Gunnedah, and the role of Rio Tinto in that dispute, and the Hunter Valley No. 1 mine dispute. I remember when Reverend the Hon. F. J. Nile, the Hon. B. H. Vaughan, the Hon. J. F. Ryan and I visited the picket lines at Hunter Valley No. 1 mine while on a parliamentary committee trip to investigate issues of work safety.
The terrible record of death and injury in the mining industry throws some light on the emotions that are involved in that industry when conflict occurs between the bosses and the union. I have spoken about those issues before and I have visited those places. Another mine at Mount Thorley has been the subject also of a serious dispute. I am reminded of another debate in the Legislative Council - an earlier stage of the dispute at Hunter Valley No. 1 mine that went to court. Justice Bruce managed to make an amazingly rapid decision. He found against the union, of course, but he did not delay his judgment for six months, 12 months, two years or 15 years; he managed to make a decision within about a week.
There is a long history of pressure against the CFMEU and mineworkers at Rio Tinto in particular. I deal now with some of the issues that are involved. Arguments are ensuing about redundancies. The coalmining industry has been doing badly in relation to exports in recent years and the crisis in Asian economies has not helped that situation. Tony Maher, President of the CFMEU mining division, pointed out that it is hardly a coincidence that all but two of the 30 union delegates have been sacked. One would have to wonder why the company has picked those people and why it seems to try to run the whole business in this confrontational and totally unsatisfactory way.
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As the president of the union pointed out, it is a preplanned payback. It was planned prior to the Federal election, it was put on hold and now it is operating. I believe that the Premier, Mr Carr, and the Attorney General, Jeff Shaw, played an excellent role in bringing mediation and commonsense into previous Rio Tinto disputes, obviously in the interests of workers and their families, the economy, the Hunter Valley, New South Wales as a whole and the company. Other companies can achieve decent relations with their workers. Rio Tinto has to learn that long overdue lesson.