THE recent incident in the Pilbara of Western Australia, where a seriously harmful radioactive capsule went "missing" literally off the back of a truck as it was transported to a depot in the north of Perth, highlights the poor oversight of regulations when it comes to (in this instance) mining companies.
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Rio Tinto, one of the largest mining companies in the world could be fined (a maximum) of a whole $1000.
Poor sods!
On the plus side, Rio Tinto have agreed to possibly repaying the taxpayer for the search for the tiny object, a cost which may end up in the many tens of thousands of dollars.
Poor sods again!
Now on finding the elusive capsule, the authorities took what was deemed to be reasonable precautions to transport the capsule to a safe top-secret facility.
That took 14 personnel from the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Nuclear and Science Technology Organisation.
This shows the yawning gap in attitude between a private company - one that could easily afford a whole lot of risk management strategies - and the authorities when it comes to handling the risks to our people and our planet.
Of course, many of you will point to the fact that the regulations and the penalties of not following those regulations are far out of step with today's expectations when it comes to risk management.
Agreed!
However, and this relates to the Australian mining industry in particular, the number of cases where the penalties and the degree of oversight by government authorities fail to meet the expectations of the citizens of this nation is alarming.
My personal opinion is that such a large number of cases is cause for concern and stems largely from the link between our governments and the lobbying power of the mining industry.
This one example, which highlights the yawning gap of attitudes to safety between private mining companies and our various governments, should be a wake-up call to all of us who care for our planet.
