ANDREW "Twiggy" Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group failed to build safe workers' accommodation at a camp in a notorious cyclone area, the West Australian government has argued.
Appealing an earlier decision which saw FMG acquitted of 18 workplace safety charges, WA's Department of Commerce yesterday claimed the company had a responsibility to ensure accommodation met standards to withstand a cyclone.
The charges stem from 2007 when Cyclone George ripped through the camp, leaving two workers dead and a number of others injured.
FMG and its wholly owned subsidiary The Pilbara Infrastructure were acquitted of the 18 charges by Magistrate Joe Randazzo earlier this year when he ruled the department failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that FMG failed to provide a safe work environment.
The department, which is prosecuting the case through WorkSafe, appealed to West Australia's Supreme Court. Yesterday the department's lawyer Barry King told Justice Stephen Hall the dongas were only built to withstand wind gusts of 162km per hour when they needed to withstand 250km per hour gusts.
"It should have been designed and constructed for wind region C, not wind region A," Mr King told the court,
"When FMG and TPI took on the role... of project manager they became responsible for ensuring the camp was in wind region C."
Mr King said FMG did not check which region the dongas needed to comply with and relied on contractor NT Link to install the accommodation.
He said the rail camp was in a notorious cyclone area and FMG had an obligation under the law to comply with building standards for a cyclone area.
FMG has claimed that the prosecution was an abuse of process because NT Link had similar charges dropped after striking a deal with prosecutors. During the original trial FMG lawyer John Karkar claimed the deal allowed WorkSafe to "catch the big boys" for publicity. Mr King labelled the claims a conspiracy theory at the time.
Mr Karkar is expected to present FMG's arguments today when the case continues.
