George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As listeners to this program this evening would be well aware, Australia is going through a major mining and resources boom, with us receiving record levels of income for our resources. This is making a major contribution to the profitability and prosperity of the Australian economy. We all know, however, how well mining companies are doing out of that boom. In fact, last month BHP Billiton, our ‘Big Australian’, posted a record $13 billion profit—a record for the company and probably a record for the country. It is obvious that workers in the mining industry are doing great work, particularly in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is hard work; it is tough work. They work in hot, dusty conditions. But they are making a major contribution to our economy, and obviously a major contribution to the wealth of BHP Billiton.

The way in which relations between employees and managers of our major companies have changed in the past 20 years or so is reflected in the experience of workers in the Pilbara, who in the last quarter were able to shift 29 million tonnes of iron ore, which played a substantial role in the profitability of BHP Billiton in the last financial year. The workers of this company were alerted that, in recognition of their contribution to the company’s profit, there was a gift on its way from Perth to workers in the Pilbara. You can picture the excitement among these workers. There was a lot of backslapping and congratulations on having achieved the record and having posted the profit that they did. You can imagine how these people reacted when they discovered what the gift was. This is a company that had just made $13 billion, and it provided a gift to its employees of a Mars bar in recognition of their contribution to the record profit of the company. It was not quite as bad as that. It was not, ‘Here’s your Mars bar; take it or leave it.’ They gave them a choice. They said, ‘You can have a Mars bar or a Snickers.’

John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not factually right.

George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sorry, Senator Watson, but this was written up in the West Australian of 5 July. I am not aware of where the company has rejected it. In fact, a spokesman for BHP Billiton said that it was not aligned to their financial program but basically a thankyou to everyone for their hard work—a token gesture, I suppose. A token gesture indeed—a Mars bar or a Snickers bar for contributing to the biggest profit ever made by this company. That reflects the contempt with which chief executives treat their workers in many companies today. It reflects the nature of industrial and human relations in most of our major companies.

I am quite sure that the directors or the CEO of BHP Billiton would not be satisfied with receiving a Mars bar or a Snickers bar as a reward for the company making a $13 billion profit. I am sure that they will be more than amply rewarded by their remuneration packages, which will enable them to buy substantial shares in Cadburys or whoever it is that makes Mars bars and Snickers these days. As opposed to getting a Mars bar or a Snickers as a reward for contributing to that profit, the executives will be more than rewarded for the achievement of their workers.

We hear time and time again about the way workers in companies in this country are being treated. We consistently read about companies reporting their profits and we see executives walking away with huge remuneration packages as a result of the share price or the company improving its profitability. But this is one of those rare occasions when we are actually able to see how that is reflected in the workforce of these companies and how the workers are rewarded for their contribution to the profitability of these companies. I wonder how many other companies there are around the place that have similar sorts of reward packages. I would hope that there would not be too many.

But this does not surprise me with BHP Billiton. I was sent a letter with a copy of the newspaper clipping last week. It was obviously sent to me by a person who knew of some of my past exploits. He reminded me of a television interview I did in the early 1980s. In fact, that was the reason that he sent me the clipping. At that time, I exposed the fact that BHP were forcing workers in Whyalla to go to the pie cart for their smoko or for their lunch, while the executives in BHP were sitting down in the executive boardroom to a three-course meal. It would appear that nothing in this company has changed or improved dramatically over the past 25 years in terms of how they see the way in which executives should be treated and looked after by the company as opposed to the way in which workers should be treated and looked after by the company.

The fact is that this company treated their workers shabbily. In recognition of them making a contribution to the company achieving their greatest ever profit—and, I presume, boosting the value of the company’s stocks and shares and boosting the amount of remuneration that will go to the executive officers of the company—their workers were treated with the magnificent gift of the choice of a Mars bar or a Snickers. If that is the way company executives feel that they ought to reward their workers, those company executives should be treated with the contempt that they deserve.