A tale of two asbestos giants: Corporate reports as (auto)biography

Abstract

Annual reports are situated artefacts which relate a longitudinal grand narrative or corporate (auto)biography. This paper explores the narrative reporting of two former asbestos manufacturers, Turner & Newall in the UK and James Hardie in Australia. Asbestos features prominently in the industrial expansion and decline of both companies as the toxic health effects of this ‘magic mineral’ became evident over time. This paper finds evidence of several distinct phases of reporting of asbestos, from reporting it as a source of unmitigated value, to a source of risk and finally as a threat to corporate viability. Each stage erased or re-situated the prior story of asbestos so that users of individual annual reports may be unaware of the grand narrative of asbestos in its transformation from ‘magic mineral to killer dust’.

Keywords::

• Turner & Newall
• James Hardie
• asbestos
• annual reports
• corporate disclosure
• discourse analysis

Notes

^1.Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust; Tweedale and Jeremy, “Compensating the Workers.”

^2.Tweedale, “Asbestos and its Lethal Legacy.”

^3.Boje, Narrative Methods, 8.

^4.Iedema, “Discourse Studies.”

^5.Bartlett and Jones, “Annual Reporting Disclosures”; Camfferrman and Zeff, “Unilever's Financial Reporting”; Flesher and Previts, “Illinois Central Railroad”; Jackson, “Controlling Philanthropy.”

^6.Brown, “Rhetoric, Textuality.”

^7.Iedema, “Discourse Studies,” 1166.

^8.Alvesson and Karreman, “Varieties of Discourse,” 1133.

^9.Genette, “Paratexts.”

^10. Laine, “Ensuring Legitimacy.”

^11. Tregidga and Milne, “From Sustainable Management.”

^12. Jacobson, “Metophoric and Metonomic Poles.”

^13.Salvatore, Santoni, and Michaels, Asbestos in Europe, 2.

^14. Chrysotile accounts for 90% of the worldwide use of asbestos. See ibid.

^15. Crocidolite has been mined in South Africa and Australia only. See McCulloch, Asbestos Mining Southern Africa.

^16.UK Asbestos Working Party, UK Asbestos.

^17.Tweedale “Asbestos and its Lethal Legacy.”

^18. This uncertainty is exacerbated in the case of asbestos due the long latency period between exposure and manifestation of mesothelioma and also the potential for disease from non-occupational exposure in the environment.

^19. UK asbestos products were manufactured from imported raw material from the largest mines in South Africa operated by subsidiaries of UK companies, principally, Cape Asbestos Pty, T&N and the Griqualand Exploration and Finance Company Limited. See McCulloch, Asbestos Mining Southern Africa.

^20.UK Asbestos Working Party, UK Asbestos.

^21.Wyckoff and McBride, “Comparison of UK and US.”

^22. Ibid., 420.

^23.Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust.

^24. Ibid.

^25. Ibid.

^26. Ibid., 10.

^27. Ibid.

^28. In 2001, three events crystallised a crisis for UK asbestos companies: the largest insurer of industrial risks was declared insolvent; T&N entered administration; and the decision in the Fairchild case became a watershed for asbestos litigants. ‘It is becoming easier and easier to see a pattern in these developments, one which ensures that victims are left to bear the costs of corporate profits generated by the lucrative trade in asbestos products during the last century.’ See Kazan-Allen, British Asbestos Newsletter, 1.

^29.http://www.fmoplan.com/

^30.O'Meally, “Asbestos Litigation.”

^31.Prince, Davidson, and Dudley, “James Hardie and Asbestos Compensation.”

^32. CSR Limited (CSR), although a minor player in product manufacture, gained asbestos-related ‘notoriety’ through the mining of crocidolite (blue asbestos) at Wittenoom in Western Australia.

^33.Girvan and Smee, “Paying for Asbestos.”

^34.Prince, Davidson, and Dudley, “James Hardie and Asbestos Compensation.”

^35.Carroll, A Very Good Business.

^36. James Hardie owned and operated a mine predominately extracting white asbestos (chrysotile) at Baryulgil through its wholly-owned subsidiary Asbestos Mines Pty Ltd between 1944 and 1976. See Moerman and van der Laan, Accountability and Asbestos at Baryulgil.

^37.Haigh, Asbestos House; Spender, “Blue Asbestos.”

^38.Boje, Narrative Methods.

^39.Amernic and Craig, “Understanding Accounting.”

^40. See for example Laine, “Ensuring Legitimacy.”

^41. See for example Tinker, Paper Prophets.

^42. Tregigda and Milne, “Sustainable Management.”

^43. See Ferguson, “Analysing Accounting Discourse.”

^44. Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in Australia and Companies Act 2006 in the UK.

^45.Davison, “Paratextual Framing,” 131.

^46. Ibid.

^47. Ibid., 131.

^48.Boje, Narrative Methods, 8.

^49.MacIntosh, Accounting, Accountants and Accountability, 23.

^50.Boje, Narrative Methods, 44.

^51. While much of the controversy, particularly over James Hardie, relates to the nuances of corporate structure and subsequent liability in jurisdictions where the doctrine of separate legal entity is fiercely protected, we are limiting our data collection and analysis to the information contained in annual reports of the exchange-listed entity in each case – the representation of the corporate entity to society.

^52.JHI SE, History.

^53. See Moerman and van der Laan, “Accounting and Long-Tail Liabilities.”

^54.Turner & Newall, 1952 Annual Report, 15.

^55.Turner & Newall, 1954 Annual Report, 13.

^56.Turner & Newall, 1955 Annual Report, 13.

^57.Turner & Newall, 1956 Annual Report, 16; Turner & Newall, 1957 Annual Report, 17.

^58. Turner & Newall, 1957 Annual Report, 18.

^59.Turner & Newall, 1962 Annual Report, 22.

^60.Turner & Newall, 1963 Annual Report, 20.

^61.Turner & Newall, 1965 Annual Report, 10.

^62.Turner & Newall, 1967 Annual Report, 5.

^63.Turner & Newall, 1969 Annual Report, 3.

^64.Turner & Newall, 1971 Annual Report, 10.

^65. Asbestos Industry (Asbestosis) Scheme 1931 brought the asbestos industry in to the Workmen's Compensation Act 1925 as extended by the Workmen's Compensation (Silicosis and Asbestosis) Act 1930.

^66.Turner & Newall, 1973 Annual Report, 4.

^67.Turner & Newall, 1976 Annual Report, 3.

^68. Ibid., 3.

^69.Turner & Newall, 1977 Annual Report, 3.

^70.Turner & Newall, 1980 Annual Report, 1.

^71.Turner & Newall, 1980 Annual Report, 8.

^72.Turner & Newall, 1984 Annual Report, 3.

^73.Turner & Newall, 1986 Annual Report, 3.

^74.McCulloch, Asbestos – Its Human Cost

^75.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1970 Annual Report, 5.

^76.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1971 Annual Report, 7.

^77.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1974 Annual Report, 12.

^78.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1977 Annual Report, inside front cover.

^79.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1978 Annual Report, 9.

^80.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1979 Annual Report, 7.

^81. Ibid., 8.

^82. Ibid., 5.

^83.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1984 Annual Report, 6.

^84.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1981 Annual Report, 8.

^85.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1984 Annual Report, 6.

^86.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1982 Annual Report, 17.

^87. Ibid., 10.

^88.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1983 Annual Report, 9.

^89.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1984 Annual Report, 3.

^90.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1986 Annual Report, 8.

^91.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1983 Annual Report, Note 22.

^92. James Hardie was in dispute with QBE and disclosed in Note 22 that ‘one of the insurers is endeavouring to avoid its relevant policies’ in JHIL, 1983 Annual Report. By 1985, the action had been ‘discontinued following mutual resolution of the matter’ in Note 23, JHIL, 1985 Annual Report.

^93.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1989 Annual Report, Note 29.

^94. James Hardie Industries Limited, 1985 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1986 Annual Report.

^95.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1988 Annual Report.

^96.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1990 Annual Report, 4.

^97.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1989 Annual Report, 6.

^98.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1991 Annual Report, 4.

^99.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1992 Annual Report, 16.

^100.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1996 Annual Report, 4.

^101. James Hardie Industries Limited, 1993 Annual Report, 4.

^102.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1994 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1996 Annual Report;James Hardie Industries Limited, 1997 Annual Report.

^103.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1997 Annual Report, 4 (emphasis original).

^104.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1990 Annual Report, note 29; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1991 Annual Report, note 29 (emphasis added).

^105. See Moerman and van der Laan, “Risky business.”

^106.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1998 Annual Report, 2.

^107.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1999 Annual Report, 7.

^108.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1997 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1998 Annual Report;James Hardie Industries Limited, 1999 Annual Report.

^109.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1997 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1998 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1999 Annual Report.

^110.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1997 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1998 Annual Report; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1999 Annual Report.

^111.James Hardie Industries Limited, 1999 Annual Report, 20.

^112.Boje, Narrative Methods.

^113.Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust.

^114.Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust; Tweedale and Jeremy, “Compensating the Workers.”

^115. Alice Jefferson worked for a few months in her youth at Cape Asbestos. See Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust.

^116. T&N had a history of denying liability and interfering with diagnoses that linked disease to asbestos, however subsequently making paltry payments to affected workers and their families ex gratia. See Tweedale and Jeremy, “Compensating the Workers”; Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust; James Hardie Industries Limited, 1996 Annual Report, 4; Moerman and van der Laan, “Risky Business”; Alvesson and Kärreman, “Varieties of Discourse,” 1134.

^117. Alvesson and Karreman, “Varieties of Discourse”. 1132.

^118.JHIL, “Project Green.”

^119.Davison, “Paratextual framing,” 121.

^120.Boje, Narrative Methods.

^121.Tweedale, Magic Mineral to Killer Dust.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lee Moerman

Lee Moerman is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the University of Wollongong. Her research interests include an interdisciplinary approach to studying accounting in its socio-political context.

Sandra van der Laan

Sandra van der Laan is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the University of Sydney and a Professor of Accounting at Durham University. Her research interests lie in accounting as a mechanism to discharge accountability and accounting as a social discourse. With Lee Moerman, she has a particular interest in accounting for long-tail liabilities.

David Campbell

David Campbell is a Professor of Accounting at University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. His research interests include corporate governance and corporate social responsibility.