Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion moved by the honourable member for Reid. I thank the member for Reid for once again bringing this issue before the parliament. The battle for justice for victims of asbestos diseases is very important to me and I have been engaged in it for many years. Like many Australians, I have lost friends to the horrible disease mesothelioma, and I have family members who suffer from asbestos related diseases. This is in no small part because the suburbs in my electorate of Throsby have used products containing asbestos as basic building materials for many, many years. Asbestos garages and sheds were used as cricket stumps and tennis nets in the backyards of my childhood. It may be that I or some of my school friends will one day be beneficiaries of the great work of the people in this place and the campaign that I will talk about.

In 2005 I had the great honour of going to work with the ACTU as part of the negotiating team on the James Hardie campaign, as it is well known. That team was led by the now member for Charlton, Mr Greg Combet, and the late Bernie Banton—a courageous man who is known to many in this place and whose battle has been taken on by his wife Karen. Campaigning for justice against James Hardie, a company that sought to abdicate both their responsibilities in relation to asbestos products and their social responsibilities, was a defining experience in my life. I take this opportunity to reply to some of the observations that were made earlier by the member for Bowman, who criticised some of the actions of unions in Canada in relation to the continued mining of asbestos in that country. In this country and around the world the union movement has not always got it right—at least not in the first instance—but I am absolutely certain that had it not been for the work of the trade union movement and the leadership shown by the ACTU and Unions New South Wales, working with the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia and the New South Wales government, James Hardie would never have been brought to book. We set up a compensation fund, the Asbestos Diseases Research Foundation—which has now given birth to research work in the hospital at Concord in the electorate of the member for Reid—and reformed the claims process.

Let us talk today about the important struggle that continues internationally. The terrible legacy of asbestos will live on in this country for many, many years to come as we deal with ways to eradicate it from our buildings, public and private. But we need to ensure that we do not visit that upon other nations in our region and around the world. As a nation that experienced rapid economic growth, especially during the boom years after the Second World War, we can understand the pressures that face developing nations, especially here in the Asia-Pacific. The attraction of strong, cheap, durable and heat-resistant building materials cannot be denied. However, those products that contain asbestos carry a hideous cost, often a cost which is visited upon the people who can least afford it.

So the actions of countries like Canada which continue to export asbestos and resist international efforts to list chrysotile asbestos under the Rotterdam Convention on prior informed consent is deplorable and should be strongly condemned in this place. As I said, they visit suffering and long-term health costs on the countries of our region and the people within those countries who are least able to deal with those health costs and the suffering that is likely to be visited on them over the long term. For these reasons I am proud to add my voice to this motion and urge all other members in this place to support it.

Debate (on motion by Mr Neumann) adjourned.

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