BHP threatens coal miner for leaking in David v Goliath court stoush

BHP lawyers Minter Ellison has threatened coal miner Simon Turner with legal action for ‘breach of trust’ over an MWM story. Michael West reports.

They don’t call him lawyer for nothing. Desperate to silence the media as well as the courts, BHP’s lawyers Minter Ellison threatened coal miner Simon Turner with legal action for ‘breach of trust’.

The threat relates to a story published by. West Report Turner, Minters partners Trent Forno and BHP’s in-house lawyers John Hickey are on YouTube about a series of meetings and related correspondence some years ago between another coal miner Sam Stephens, Australian Minerals Council boss Tania Constable and Pauline Hanson One Nation’s senator Malcolm Roberts’ lawyer Hugh Carter.

As reported here , BHP successfully asked the Federal Court to silence most of Simon Turner’s case against Great Australia and other parties. Details of this meeting were subject to confidentiality instructions. But BHP’s latest legal salvo misses a crucial fact: time.

The media outlet in question, MWM (this publisher), had been aware of this meeting and related correspondence for years and was only disclosing information obtained before legal proceedings this year.

There is no doubt that BHP would like the legal system to grant it confidentiality throughout human history. At issue is an upcoming class-action lawsuit on behalf of casual coal miners who claim that BHP and other mining companies have underpaid them for years through labor hire firms such as Chandler Macleod, also a defendant in the Turner case.

Those who follow this David v Goliath saga know that a few weeks ago the judge in the case suppressed most of Turner’s evidence. He couldn’t even get transcripts of his own case. Although MWM also tried to charge almost $2,000 for a matter that was heard in so-called ‘open court’… Evidence regarding both MWM and Turner was brought by Minter Ellison.

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Evidence in Turner’s case was suppressed under confidentiality orders sought by BHP and his associates were never required to submit a defence.

Simon Turner made a grievance application to the Court ahead of the final hearing. He has no money. They were trying to make him pay thousands of dollars to appeal. But the irony was that he had to disclose his pay stub to make this application.

These paystubs showed Chandler Macleod was his employer, despite BHP and its lawyers claiming for years that another organization called Ready Workforce was his employer.

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The reason BHP is defending this case vigorously is because it is the precursor to a potentially multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit. Politically the issue is complicated, with the Coalition and One Nation likely being taken over by donations from BHP and the mining lobby, and the Labor government being indebted to the unions who sided with BHP on this issue.

As part of the Black Coal Mining Industry Award, Simon Turner was awarded $137,000 per year. BHP and Chandler Macleod Group paid him $66,000 through a deliberately created system to avoid paying Black Coal Bounty rates.

When he broke his back on a BHP mine site, the same system left him with $400 a week in workers’ compensation instead of the $2,108 a week he was legally entitled to.

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This is where things get interesting. BHP chief executive Mike Henry called for the industrial relations risk posed by Turner and others to be remedied. The Government Relations machine appears to have crafted a political letter to silence Senator Malcolm Roberts, the Pauline Hanson One Nation senator who has publicly defended Turner for years.

Gina Rinehart connection

Gina Rinehart, whose mining empire operates on the same system, flies Pauline Hanson to Mar-a Lago on her private jet and funnels nearly $900,000 into One Nation’s political machine.

A reconciliation conference was held on June 7, 2024. Participants Included was Minter Ellison senior partner Trent Forno, an authorized representative for BHP Sophie Croft, Turner and his legal team and – critically – General Hugh Carter Counsel in Senator Malcolm Roberts’ office. The meeting was recorded.

Turner stated on the record without objection: “Mike Henry and Geraldine Slattery know exactly what they’ve been exposed to, and Mike “Henry said, ‘Fix it now,’ and now we’re in June 2024.”

“It’s much bigger than this.”

BHP’s Minter Ellison lawyer Trent Forno admitted at that conference: “Obviously it’s much bigger than that. It involves multiple claims and causes of action.”

Roberts’ General Counsel said at the conference: “From my perspective, I think Simon has a clear and strong case if he goes to court.”

Turner gave a 7-day ultimatum. BHP did not respond within 7 days. BHP did not respond In 7 weeks. Eighty-three days later, BHP’s Government Relations team – not him lawyers sent a letter to Senator Roberts. There was no mention of this in the letter June meeting. Roberts was told Turner’s allegations were ‘unfounded’ and there was ‘no prospect of resolution’. success’. I

It closed the door to further deals.

This was not a legal communication. It was political. Malcolm Roberts’ General The lawyer was in the room at the June meeting. He heard Forno say the case was “a lot.” ‘bigger’. Turner had a ‘clear and strong case’, he told the conference.

One Man Against BHP’s Army of Lawyers | West Report

Michael West was founded Michael West Media Focusing on public interest journalism in 2016, particularly the increasing power of corporations over democracy. West was previously a journalist and editor for Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and was even once a stockbroker.