BY DAKOTA TAIT
The Federal Government is seeking a briefing from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, after claims aired in Parliament, mine operators across the Hunter and Australia, are lying about coal quality.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie raised the allegations in Canberra on Monday, naming local operators Glencore and Peabody, as well as Anglo-American and Macquarie Bank.
He told Parliament, a whistleblower coal executive has handed over thousands of documents as proof.
The documents are purported to show fraud making out that Australian exports are of higher and cleaner quality than they actually are.
Testing firm ALS has also been implicated, just two years after admitting to falsifying up to 50 percent of results at its Newcastle lab.
The corporate regulator has taken no action on ALS, but four staff members were suspended and then left the company.
If true, the allegations are likely to raise questions about the impact on emissions and the environment, as well as overseas sales and the economy.
