Reasons For Why The Queensland Government Decided To Let The Mining Company Monitor Itself

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Provide two possible reasons for why the Queensland government decided to let the mining company monitor itself. Use material to illustrate your argument?

The Queensland government decided to allow the mining company Xstrata to monitor the Mount Isa mine by itself due to government legislation. This legislation was passed in 1985 by the Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s government. It allowed the mine to emit triple the emissions permitted under the national environmental regulations. The mining company was also given the power to monitor its own operations a task often left to the EPA. The government also allowed the mine to to monitor itself due to the size of the town, as Ian Wilson points out that in the past Mount Isa was not considered “a big enough …show more content…

Whilst the industry has “brought jobs and prosperity” employing 4000 people and another 5000 indirectly. It has lead to a deterioration in basic human rights “a survey completed in 1994 found excessive lead in 36.4 per cent of the town’s children.” Both Xstrata and the QLD government must ensure that adequate health procedures are put in place. Turley describes Xstrata’s 15 air-quality monitors as “the most intensive monitoring system in Australia. Although Xstrata provides key job opportunities it must also be held accountable for its disregard to human health an issue the government must aim to address.

Provide three issue related factors in ethical decision making to explain the resident’s unwillingness to act against the mine company. Use case material to illustrate your arguments:

Moral intensity is a construct that relates to issues in terms of their perceived moral significance. Individual’s perceptions of moral intensity should impact their recognition of issues as posing moral dilemmas and should affect ethical judgements and behavioural intentions regarding issues. These include social consensus the degree to which people agree over the ethics of a problem or action “they say don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Whilst on the other hand “will she be able to have her own children or hold down a …show more content…

A qualitative questionnaire can be used to gather facts about an individual’s beliefs, feelings and experiences. For example, asking a resident if they think lead is dangerous can get answered with both a positive and negative response. A positive response is “I’ve lived here for 37 years, raised two healthy sons…” contradicted with a negative response “I’ve lived here for 35 years as well, but now I’m the one with a child whose blood level is 31.5…”. Therefore, a qualitative questionnaire is appropriate when trying to understand an individual’s