By Anthony Brown
In the federal House of Representatives on September 17, 1970, a young Labor MP, Paul Keating, described transnational mining corporation Rio Tinto Zinc's (RTZ) financial control of Australia's natural resources as unbelievable.
In the early 1970s, of the seven largest Australian companies on the Melbourne Stock Exchange, four were subsidiaries of RTZ.
Keating referred to the threat posed by RTZ to Australia's economic and political stability, that RTZ could use its economic power to persuade government to do its bidding.
Keating's words may have been prophetic, for RTZ appears to be using its economic influence to force two state governments to see to its demands.
RTZ's main subsidiary in Australia is Conzinc Riotinto of Australia Ltd (CRA). CRA is one of Australia's leading mining companies, with interests in copper, gold, lead, zinc, silver, iron ore, aluminium, coal, salt, diamonds, tin and uranium. In 1991, CRA had a turnover of almost $5000 million.
Some of CRA's more controversial projects include its intention to mine in Western Australia's Rudall River National Park and its former copper mining operations in Bougainville.
In late July, Comalco Ltd, a CRA subsidiary (67% owned by CRA and 32.8% by RTZ) threatened to scrap plans for a $650 million redevelopment of its Bell Bay aluminium smelter in Tasmania, forcing the closure of the plant by 2001 with the loss of 800 jobs.
Comalco wanted the Tasmanian government to sell a group of small power stations to supply the smelter.
Tasmanian Premier Ray Groom said Comalco's offer for the stations was hundreds of millions of dollars less than the government's assessment of their value. When the Tasmanian government refused to decrease the price, Comalco threatened to pull out of Bell Bay.
A spokesperson for the company said: "If the government was prepared to change its position prior to the commencement of closure of the smelter it may be possible to modernise the smelter at that time".
Is Comalco bullying the Tasmanian government into selling the power stations below their value in return for securing 800 jobs?
In Queensland, Comalco/CRA appears to be up to similar tricks.
When the Wik Aboriginal people at Cape York put in the Mabo-style claim for 35,000 square kilometres of the region, including Comalco's bauxite mines at Weipa, CRA chief executive John Ralph said in an ABC television interview that a $1.75 billion investment in Gladstone in central Queensland could be cancelled.
The Weipa mines supply CRA's refinery and smelter at Gladstone. CRA/Comalco plans to buy the state-owned Gladstone power station for $750 million and to upgrade the Boyne Island (off the coast at Gladstone) aluminium smelter for $800 million, provided the sale of the power station is completed by December 31.
Ralph said if the land claim over Weipa remained unresolved by the end of the year, then CRA would have to defer or drop the Gladstone investment.
In reaction to Ralph's comments, Premier Wayne Goss told the Courier Mail (July 21) that he supported Ralph's position and had been in close consultation with CRA.
"The best interests of the state and the country will be served by Commonwealth and state legislation to validate the Comalco title, and we will be asking the Commonwealth to support that course of action", Goss said.
If CRA, a foreign-owned company (RTZ has a 49% controlling interest), is using its economic weight to bully governments, what protection do we have from this influence? Does this not ridicule the ideal of democratic representation and objective government? Who has more rights: CRA or Australia's Aboriginal people?