Entertained as always Mungo’s column, but loath as I am to defend a super-rich mining magnate, I would not personally lump Andrew Forrest with Rinehart and Palmer.
His so-called ‘Australian Employment Covenant’ to provide 50,000 jobs to Indigenous Australians has genuine legs and he has done a fair bit of work off his own bat to prove it, not just throw money at it. It’s arguably better than an apology with no backbone.
Yes, the guy’s a salesman; yes, he is getting rich extracting resources which add to global warming; yes, he opposed the mining tax; but does that put him the same category as extreme right-wingers and Sydney talkback favourites Rinehart and Palmer? I think upon closer analysis he deserves a fairer shake than that.
Hamish Broome
South Golden Beach
