Most everyone from
Noam Chomsky down know that the business fraternity clearly and unambiguously puts
profit ahead of people, and the natural implication of that is that public
health is compromised, as is the broader health of the planet, something upon
which the general health and wellbeing of humanity depends – Robert McLean)
 |
| Noam Chomsky - profit before people. |
The decisions reached at the recent Coag energy council
meeting are reminiscent of a long series of failures to understand the
impacts of powerful business on the health of the community.
The failures extend historically from tobacco, to asbestos
to the health scourges of coal, and now to the health and community impacts of
the unconventional gas industry.
It is too much to believe that governments fail to
understand the implications.
Just 30 years ago, Australia was awash with tobacco
advertising and promotion by tobacco companies and their agents through
multiple media outlets and sporting organisations, supported by newspaper
editorials opposed to any restrictions.
Major political parties readily accepted large donations,
and some individual politicians were not immune to personal gifts and favours.
Tobacco lobbyists had ready access to legislators to ensure that measures to
deal with the health consequences were thwarted.
Read Kingsley Faulkner’s story on The Guardian - “Cigarettes, asbestos, now fossil fuels. How big business impacts public health.”
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