UNIVERSITY students would be "wonderful candidates for organ donors" if they were sent underground in a training mine touted by a former union heavyweight, an ICAC hearing was told yesterday.
Professor Ian Plimer, the professor of geology at the University of Adelaide and a one-time member of the Minerals Advisory Council, learned of the training mine proposal during a meeting with former resources minister Ian Macdonald, former CFMEU national president John Maitland and a staff member from the University of Newcastle in November 2007.
"I was quite appalled by it really ... it's absolute madness," he said.
"The last thing you would want to do is have young students in a training mine underground, especially in a longwall coalmine.
"The students are wonderful candidates for organ donors and Darwin Awards (a term for people who die in stupid circumstances). It was not the university's role to be operating a training mine."
ICAC is investigating the circumstances of Mr Macdonald granting an exploration licence in late 2008 to a group of investors, including Mr Maitland, and are examining if he "conferred an improper favour or benefit" for doing so.
Professor Plimer said safety wasn't his only concern, adding costs to the university would also be a reason the proposal wasn't suitable.
"The thing that came to mind (at the meeting) was it was a good way (for the university) to go broke very quickly," he said.
The inquiry continues.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét