" Weasel " words !

Who would trust any statement made by the James Hardie company ?

This building materials manufacturer used asbestos in it's products for decades after the deadly nature of asbestos was known. This caused the death of both employees and customers - until Hardies was dragged kicking and screaming to introduce a voluntary compensation scheme to compensate victims.

We now know that it's board of directors breached the Corporations Act when they deliberately claimed that the James Hardie Medical Research and Compensation Foundation was fully funded. It wasn't - and it had a shortfall of over $ 1 billion !

These directors face fines of $ 200,000 each and may be debarred from holding executive positions in public companies.

We now learn that Hardies are claiming that the recession is causing a " negative cash flow " and as a result contributions to the revamped compensation scheme will cease next year - and not restart until conditions improve.

Given Hardies previous attempts to mislead it should be noted that Hardie's rushed into this voluntary scheme to avoid a class court action that may have ended with the company being wound up.

They have a proven record of using " weasel words " to try and avoid their obligations and this latest claim does not specify just who will determine when things have improved to the point that compensation will resume.

Reduced dividends to shareholders should not be a reason to stop the money flow to victims.

It would be reasonable for the compensation fund to apply to the courts to have a court appointed trustee examine the day to day trading of James Hardie - and to have the responsibility of determining profitability.

On previous performance, Hardies honesty is suspect !