BHP

“We stood on the hillside watching the sea of mud going past, making a terrible noise. It was unimaginable. There were boulders and masonry and bits of machinery carried along on top of the mud and the noise was horrific. We spent the night scrambling round on the hillside in the dark, trying to find each other.”
– Resident of flooded Bento Rodrigues village.

Brazil’s worst environmental disaster happened in November 2015, when the Samarco dam collapsed. The collapse caused a devastating mudslide that flooded the communities of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo, killing 19 people. Samarco is a joint venture between BHP and Brazilian mining giant Vale.

Around 45 million litres of the contaminated slurry were released into the Doce River and, within two weeks, the pollution had traveled 650 kilometers – crossing two states and reaching the Atlantic Ocean. At least 700 homes were destroyed, and 300,000 people were left without clean drinking water. According to the UN, 2.3 million people relied on the river for key ecosystem services like fishing, agriculture, and tourism. Indigenous communities were severely impacted.

Documents filed by Brazilian prosecutors suggest that the companies knew of the potential risks and did nothing to prevent them or warn the communities. The victims have yet not received adequate compensation and little has been done to help the affected river systems recover.

The environmental, social, and economic impacts of the disaster are still being assessed. In 2016, 21 company executives – including eight BHP directors – were charged with a range of crimes such as homicide and environmental damage. However, Brazilian civil society organizations remain skeptical that they will ever face time in jail.

**The text for this Corporate Cane Toad Nomination is taken from the report Nowhere to Turn by Human Rights Law Centre, for more information and reference see the  full report here

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Anglo-Australian, BHP is one of the world’s largest mining companies, with 60,000 employees. The global headquarters is located in Melbourne and, in 2017, BHP’s profit was $US6.7 billion.

Rio Tinto

“The lack of free prior and informed consent, the forcing of people into contracting out their rights, the management of culture that ties traditional owners and takes advantage of weak laws … this is a form of incremental genocide.”
– Senator Dodson said about the destruction of Juukan Gorge.

Despite Rio Tinto’s repeated claims that they support all internationally recognised human rights and promise to play a positive part for local communities, they cause destruction at home and overseas. In May of 2020, a Rio Tinto mining blast destroyed Juukan Gorge sites of ancient Aboriginal heritage sites that held significance dating back 46,000 years. The blast was carried out for the expansion of Rio Tinto’s iron ore mine in the western Pilbara region, located in Western Australia.

The site is of major significance of Juukan Gorge to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people. Artefacts found there were some of the oldest in Western Australia, as it has been a place of occupation for generations of ancestors of the Traditional Owners. The parliamentary inquiry, carried out by the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia, was scathing in its review, found “Rio knew the value of what they were destroying but blew it up anyway,”

Rio Tinto’s misconduct is not only  recent. From 1972 to 1989, Rio Tinto operated one of the world’s largest open-cut copper mines on the island of Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, via its subsidiary Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL). Throughout this time the company discharged millions of tonnes of mine waste directly into the Jaba and Kawerong Rivers, devastating the environment and the life of local communities.

The resulting environmental devastation and socio-cultural impacts, along with discontent over poor wages and distribution of profits, ultimately led to a local insurrection that forced the mine’s closure. In response, the PNG government sent in police mobile squads and troops to crush the protestors and secure the mine. The bloody campaign led to the destruction of hundreds of villages around the mine area, and their habitants were moved to detention camps where torture, rape and extra judicial killings were recorded.

In 2011, a sworn legal affidavit from PNG’s former Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, was released by news program Dateline. In it he testified that, when the uprising started, Rio Tinto threatened to pull all its financial investments out of PNG unless the government took military action to recapture the mine. Evidence has subsequently emerged indicating Rio Tinto supplied logistical support for the military operations.

Communities are still coping with the legacy of the conflict and the disastrous environmental impacts. As the mine was never properly closed, polluted water continues to flow into local rivers from the mine site, impacting people’s livelihoods and food security.

**Some of the text for this Corporate Cane Toad Nomination is taken from the report Nowhere to Turn by Human Rights Law Centre, for more information and reference see the  full report here

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Anglo-Australian multinational, and one of the world’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto employs 47,000 people in 35 countries. In 2017, Rio Tinto’s profit was $US8.58 billion.

JUST GROUP

“I don’t know if the people who buy our clothes are aware of our pathetic living conditions. I want to tell them, ‘The dress you are wearing is made of our sweat and tears’.”
– Salma, garment worker in Bangladesh*

COVID-19 has worsened the situation for workers making our clothes, the majority of whom are women in Southeast Asia.¹ As retailers temporarily shut down their stores, workers are bearing the brunt of the impact, losing jobs and income. Many workers have reported increased hunger, skipping meals, and borrowing money to buy food.²

Big businesses in Australia like the Just Group – which has reported a surge in profits³ – need to do more to help garment workers survive the pandemic and ensure they are paid the wages they are owed. This means committing to paying for all in-production and completed orders during the pandemic, not cancelling orders, delaying payments, or requesting discounts from suppliers.⁴<

Many brands have committed to do this,⁵ but there is no public evidence that those owned and operated by the Just Group – which includes brands like Just Jeans, Jay Jays, and Dotti.⁶

Just Group has also so far failed to meet key commitments that uphold the rights of garment workers: transparency in its brands’ supply chain to show where products are produced, and a living wage to all workers who make their goods.

*Quote from Salma is referring generally to the garment industry. There is no suggestion here that Salma’s comment refers to any brand in particular.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

The Just Group is owned by Premier Investments, a $3.3 billion Australian Stock Exchange listed business, founded and chaired by billionaire Solomon Lew.⁷

References

ANZ

“Climate change is the single greatest threat to a sustainable future.”
– Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General of UN

Global warming is substantial caused by the burning of fossil fuels and is having a devastating effect on our planet, causing heatwaves, floods, droughts, storm surges, rising seas and more intense storms. Since committing to support the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, ANZ has loaned more than $10 billion to fossil fuels around the world. This includes $2.4 billion to the coal industry, more than any other Australian bank.

Worse still, research has found ANZ loaned $2.2 billion for projects that expand the scale of the fossil fuel industry, just when we need a rapid decline of fossil fuels to keep global warming to 1.5°C. These projects will enable the release of more than four billion tonnes of CO2, equivalent to more than seven times Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Australia New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) is the third largest bank in Australia and among the top 20 banks in the world. The company’s headquarters is in Melbourne and their profit in 2017 was $US5.04 billion.

MAYUR RESOURCES

As people worldwide are fighting for climate justice, the Australian company Mayur Resources is pushing to open Papua New Guinea (PNG) to coal – the world’s dirtiest industry. Among the company’s many plans is to build a coal-fired power station in Lae, PNG’s second-biggest city. It is unclear whether the company has done sufficient outreach to the people living there, who could suffer substantial health impacts due to the coal plant. Recent research also suggests that the company has not adequately consulted with impacted communities about the plant that is to be built 500 meters from their village. In the words of one of the community representatives themselves: “The community needs to be involved in all processes of communication, in consultation and with any other activity that’s associated with the company. They don’t have our consent”.

If Mayur Resources succeeds with its dirty coal agenda, PNG would be the first Pacific Island Country to develop a coal industry. Beyond wreaking havoc on local communities and causing irreversible environmental damage, this would also seriously harm the efforts of the communities across the Pacific that are leading the fight to save their homes and end climate injustice. Mayur is hoping to start the construction of the plant in 2021.

RESGEN

“Women in these communities are the ones most affected. When there is pollution, the women have health issues and they are the ones who are taking care of the men when they are sick. The mines also bring an influx of people coming and looking for jobs and the men who have left their wives at home use their money to bribe the young girls.”
– Francina Nkosi, who lives in Lephalale, Limpopo Province.

Australian company Resgen is set on developing a huge coal mine near a small South African town, which will have devastating impacts on our climate and the women in the community.

A community of women in Lephalale, Limpopo province has been challenging the presence of the mine and documenting its negative impacts. The mining company has failed to deliver promised essential services such as water, sanitation and electricity, and to adequately consult the Lephalale community. In the past it’s also denied community members the right to visit the graves of relatives.

A 2018 campaign to stop Australia’s export credit agency from funding this massive mine was successful. But the fight isn’t over.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Australian company Resource Generation (Resgen) is an emerging ASX and JSE-listed energy company, currently developing the Boikarabelo Coal Mine in South Africa’s Waterberg region. The Waterberg accounts for around 40% of the country’s currently known coal resources.