Dimensions
154 x 233 x 29mm
Matt Peacock broke the story of the link between asbestos‚ James Hardie and the deadly health epidemic facing employees‚ their families and customers in an award-winning radio series for the ABC Science Unit in 1977. Peacock has followed the tragic trail for more than 30 years; from the company's factories where unwitting workers had asbestos 'snowball' fights‚ to the mine where Aboriginal children played in the tailings‚ and into thousands of houses where Hardie's asbestos now threatens home renovators‚ not just from their fibro walls and ceilings‚ but from the dust that still lurks under the carpets.
KILLER COMPANY rips the cloak of secrecy from one of the greatest corporate scandals in Australia's history. Peacock delves into the secret world of James Hardie and the fortune it made for one family as its products reached into every corner of Australian life. The book reveals how Hardie silenced Australia's largest asbestos union‚ corrupted health authorities and concealed the nation's biggest peacetime disaster‚ one likely to blight the lives of at least 20‚000 Australians. Peacock's painstaking research‚ involving newly discovered documents and interviews with more than a hundred former Hardie employees and other key figures‚ exposes in stark detail how the company subverted the institutions designed to protect ordinary citizens‚ and how a dedicated group of unionists‚ lawyers and activists finally exposed Hardie's subterfuge.
Peacock was a friend of Bernie Banton‚ the 'face' of asbestos victims in their battle for compensation. Banton's personal story is woven throughout this compelling account of a much larger struggle. KILLER COMPANY is a chilling reminder of how rich and powerful people in pursuit of profit can destroy the normal protections society imposes on corporate behavior‚ and how easily they can evade punishment.
