Macquarie Bank's role in Beaconsfield mine probed by: Matthew Denholm From: The Australian July 09, 2008 12:00AM THE financial structure behind Tasmania's Beaconsfield Gold Mine and Macquarie Bank's hold on its profits will be investigated by the inquest into the death of miner Larry Knight. Coroner Rod Chandler yesterday ruled against the mine's submission that he should simply adopt the findings of the official Melick report into the Anzac Day rock-fall in 2006 that killed Knight and trapped colleagues Brant Webb and Todd Russell underground for 14 days.
Mr Chandler also ruled against the mine's fall-back position that any inquest should be limited to geo-technical issues.
Instead, he ruled he would also examine risk management at the mine, which was criticised by an expert's report, the mine's "financial situation" and the role of Tasmania's work safety watchdog.
The decision is a win for Knight's widow, Jacqui, as well as the Australian Workers Union, whose legal team - backed by counsel assisting the coroner - argued that narrowing the scope of the inquest could lead the Coroner "into error".
..."We are happy that the people we wanted to give evidence are going to be able to give evidence about the subject matter we wanted," said Kamal Farouque, lawyer for the Knight family and the AWU.
"We're certainly happy that the Coroner rejected the mine's submission that there should be no inquest. We are pleased that the inquiry hasn't been limited in the fashion sought by the mine."
Mr Faroque said the ruling, not fully released to the public because it includes material yet to be tendered in evidence, did not mean that the inquest would become an inquiry into general conditions at the mine. Instead, it meant counsel would be able to introduce witnesses with evidence about financial or risk management issues that might relate to Knight's death.
"For example, the issue about the finances at the mine will berelevant for inquiry as to whether production decisions were related to the cause of death," he said.
Preliminary hearings in Launceston last week heard miners were warned the mine would be "shut down" by Macquarie Bank if production levels slipped.
At the time of the rock-fall, the mine was co-owned and managed by Allstate Explorations, which was run by the Perth-based administrator Michael Ryan.
Allstate was operated largely for the benefit of Macquarie Bank, which had a stranglehold on profits following a contentious 2002 deal in which it bought $77 million in intercompany debt for only $300,000.
In May last year, Mr Webb told The Australian: "We were always threatened with, 'Macquarie Bank will close us up - one more month of us making no money and Macquarie Bank closes us up'.
They used Macquarie Bank as this pawn all the time." However, Macquarie has insisted it had no involvement in the day-to-day operations of the mine.
The Coroner heard that Mr Farouque would seek to call as a witness miner Mick Borrill, who alleges that underground mine manager Pat Ball told miners that if they fell too far behind production targets, "Macquarie Bank will shut the mine down".
Mr Chandler's ruling means Mr Ryan will also be called to give evidence about whether financial pressures played any role in the decision to send miners back into the relevant section of the mine after an earlier rockfall there in October 2005.
Also likely to be called is miner Chris Mackay, who claims to have been asked to work at the 925m level despite it being closed for safety reasons in the wake of the October 2005 rockfall.
Mr Farouque said the Coroner's ruling meant evidence would also be received from University of NSW occupational health and safety expert Michael Quinlan. The court has heard that Professor Quinlan's report to special investigator Greg Melick SC concluded that "from an OHS perspective", sending men back to level 925 after October 2005 was inconsistent with risk minimisation.
However, the hearing was also told that Professor Quinlan had concluded that there was "no evidence" this decision was made "for financial reasons".
Counsel for the mine David Neal SC, who had warned that a broadly focused inquest was unnecessary and would blow out hearings by some weeks, could not be contacted yesterday. The full inquest is scheduled to begin in Launceston on July 22.
I believe Mr Matthew Gill played some major part in this affair..........
Pro Bono Publico
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