Fed: A pittance, maybe, but the law catches up with real people

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2009
Fed: A pittance, maybe, but the law catches up with real people

By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, Aug 20 AAP - When Peter Macdonald resigned in ignominy as James Hardie chief
executive in 2004, he walked away with a payout of $8.8 million.

Now, after being found guilty of misleading and deceptive corporate conduct, he has
been fined $350,000.

Corporate watchdog ASIC had asked for five times that much.

The figures speak for themselves.

Peter Shafron, another senior executive who resigned at the time, received a payout
of more than $1.1 million.

He has been fined $75,000.

Again, that was around five times less than ASIC had sought.

The golden parachutes packed for Hardie executives were announced by Meredith Hellicar,
who was the company's chairwoman at the time.

She is no longer.

She resigned in April, a day after a judge found her a most unreliable witness in the
current case, and resigned from other board positions, too.

She is one of 10 disgraced former Hardie directors found to have breached the Corporations
Act over statements about the company's capacity to meet its compensation liabilities
for asbestos sufferers.

She has been fined just $30,000.

ASIC had asked for up to $130,000.

The company was fined a peppercorn $80,000.

The fines all up amounted to $750,000, small change compared with the $25 million the
company spent defending the case.

All 10 former directors have been disqualified from managing companies for between
five and 15 years, in line with what ASIC argued.

But their financial penalties have understandably left a sour taste in the mouths of
asbestos disease victims and their families.

All 10, with the exception of Macdonald, had argued for exoneration, saying they had
already suffered.

If they really want to know what suffering is, they should take trade unionist Paul
Bastian's advice and sit at the bedside of mesothelioma victims.

"This company has seen them not as real people but as a line item on a balance sheet,"

said the AMWU official.

If they want to know what suffering is, they should reacquaint themselves with the
story of Bernie Banton, who spearheaded the fight for compensation but died two years
ago of "meso".

He was still alive when Peter Macdonald got his $8.8 million payout.

That would be enough to compensate at least 12 asbestos victims, Mr Banton said at the time.

"It's taken my breath away," he said, "and I only have 20 per cent left as it is."

Mr Banton always believed senior Hardie officers should have faced criminal charges,
instead of the civil charges they were convicted on.

At his funeral in 2007, his sister said: "Organisations don't make decisions, people do."

At least the law has finally caught up with the people.

AAP dc/dep/apm

KEYWORD: JAMES HARDIE VIEW

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