Wikileaks reveals the influence of BHP Billiton over Australian government
The revelation is embarrassing for BHP Billiton, which has consistently refused to be drawn on suggestions it had engaged in a campaign
How BHP sank Rio deal, The Age, Philip Dorling and Richard Baker December 11, 2010 MINING giant BHP Billiton lobbied intensively behind the scenes to wreck a $21billion investment deal between rival Rio Tinto and Chinese government-owned Chinalco, leaked US government cables reveal.
According to a confidential US embassy cable obtained by the Wikileaks website and released to The Age, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan’s chief of staff told American embassy officials that BHP had out-manoeuvred its rival to orchestrate the collapse of the Chinalco deal.
The revelation is embarrassing for BHP Billiton, which has consistently refused to be drawn on suggestions it had engaged in a campaign to persuade federal government ministers not to approve Chinalco’s push to double its stake in Rio Tinto.
On June 5 last year, the Chinese bid to lift its investment in Rio Tinto to 18per cent collapsed and Rio Tinto immediately announced a joint venture with BHP Billiton to combine their West Australian iron ore operations.
“Treasurer Wayne Swan’s chief of staff has told us on several occasions that BHP has played its cards with consummate skill, in part due to the increasing marginalisation of BHP CEO Marius Kloppers as BHP chairman Don Argus has taken the lead in lobbying the GOA (government of Australia) with the able assistance of BHP’s well-connected VP for government relations, Bernie Delaney,’’ the June 7 cable said.
The cable confirms an account by Treasury’s top former China economist, Stephen Joske, who last year said Mr Argus and other BHP Billiton executives targeted then prime minister Kevin Rudd, Mr Swan, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and their advisers over Chinalco’s bid to invest more in Rio Tinto…….
The American officials attributed the collapse of the Chinalco-Rio Tinto deal to backroom lobbying by BHP Billiton, which led to the Rudd government delaying its decision on whether to approve the bid.
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