Perth Media spoke this week about modern, and critical, Public Relations. Thank you to Quorum for the invitation to present the Thought Leadership piece, detailing some of the PR disasters of the past 10 years.
The mining industry’s reputation has been tarnished by Rio Tinto’s destruction of Juukan Gorge rock shelters, in Western Australia, on 24 May 2020.
Interestingly, a quick survey of the room (this week) found 18 of the 36 people, were recorded as being ‘less favourable’ to Rio Tinto, post Juukan Gorge, and 18 of 36 were also ‘less favourable’ towards the whole Australian mining industry, post Juukan Gorge. The other people in the room declined to vote. No one was recorded as being more favourable or neutral to Rio Tinto and the whole Australian mining industry, post Juukan Gorge.
Rio Tinto’s website reported: “In allowing the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters to occur, we fell far short of our values as a company and breached the trust placed in us by the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we operate. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that the destruction of a site of such exceptional cultural significance never happens again, to earn back the trust that has been lost, and to re-establish our leadership in communities and social performance.”
ESG was recently ranked by EY (the consultants) as the number 1 risk to the mining industry. - Cate Rocchi, Managing Director Perth Media.