Cameron slams Gina Rinehart

Gina Rinehart, Australia's (and the worlds) richest women (due to inheriting it from her father) made headlines here recently and news around the world. She had the audacity to say this:

"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," writes Mrs Rinehart, who has built a $20 billion-plus mining empire since inheriting lucrative tenements from her father, Lang Hancock, in 1992.

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working." Read more

Remember, this is from a person who got rich from inheriting her fathers wealth. There was of course outrage across Australia. But she didn't stop there. Not long after she went online coming out with some very strange stuff:

"Business as usual will not do, not when West African competitors can offer our biggest customers an average capital cost for a tonne of iron ore that's $100 under the price offered by an emerging producer in the Pilbara," she said.

"Furthermore, Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day. Such statistics make me worry for this country's future." 

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So it was with interest I clicked on the link in the AMWU newsletter they email me, with Doug Cameron giving a speech in the Senate in reply to her assertions. I'm very familiar with Doug Cameron as he used to be head of my union (AMWU). 

The speech was very articulate, and I must say absolutely scathing to Gina Rinehart. He uses the English language in such an eloquent way, ripping her arguments to shreds. Well worth reading the shortened version on the AMWU site, or watching the 15 minute video. After Rinehart's bullshit, something sane like this was needed in the media.

 

Senator Cameron continued, “I now want to turn specifically to Africa, where Mrs Rinehart claims workers are willing to work for less than $2 a day—I think she said they would be happy. Mine operations in Africa are often portrayed as a competitive threat to the Australian mining industry—as if the poverty level wages and abuses of workers' rights ought to be considered the natural order of things.” 

“Let us have a look at the Marikana tragedy just recently that resulted in 45 miners being shot dead by the South African police. These deaths are in addition to six fatalities that occurred at that mine in the first seven months of 2011. These were workplace deaths due to the lack of appropriate health and safety measures. 

“In a press release on 24 August 2012, ILO mining specialist Martin Hahn said miners working in such mines as Marikana were often exposed to a variety of safety hazards: falling rocks, exposure to dust, intensive noise, fumes and high temperatures, amongst others. Is this Mrs Rinehart's benchmark for African competition? Two dollars per day wages, unsafe working conditions, violence, intimidation and death. 

“Are we to compete with the goldmines of Mali, where Human Rights Watch reported that at least 20,000 children are working under extremely harsh and hazardous conditions? Human Rights Watch stated: ‘Children as young as six dig mining shafts, work underground, pull up heavyweights of ore, and carry, crush, and pan ore… mercury attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.’ 

“Is this the free market at work? Is this what Mrs Rinehart wants Australian workers to compete with? Is it any wonder that African mine workers are paid $2 a day when they face systematic intimidation for joining a union and attempting to improve their wages and conditions? Implicit in Mrs Rinehart's statement that they want to work for $2 a day is the idea that they are happy. It is a ludicrous suggestion. 

“I do not have time to detail all of the abuses perpetrated against mining workers in Africa. I simply say that to characterise the deaths, the bullying, the intimidation and the unsafe work practices in African mines as a competitive disadvantage to Australia is reprehensible and obscene. 

“I take the view that Mrs Rinehart should actually have a close look at what happens in Africa—why workers are repressed, why they are working for $2 a day, why they are being shot, why they are being intimidated and why their rights are being violated—before she comes out and argues that we should be competing against these workers. She should actually stop the argument for a special economic zone in Northern Australia because, around the world, special economic zones are synonymous with violations of workers' rights, intimidation of workers and deaths of workers. It is about time Mrs Rinehart woke up to herself,” 
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