Australian Unions Push for Asbestos Eradication

Sydney, Australia-On January 20, 2009, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd officially opened the Bernie Banton Asbestos Diseases Research Institute(BBADRI) in Sidney. The new center for the study of asbestos related cancer and other deadly respiratory illnesses is named after the Australian crusader who championed the rights of individuals who suffer and die due to their exposure to asbestos. Bernie Banton died in November of 2007 as a result of his years of asbestos exposure while working for James Hardie, a worldwide manufacturing company that used to incorporate asbestos fibers into their popular cementitious building supply products.

It is well-accepted by the medical and scientific research community that exposure to asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral formerly used in countless products and manufacturing processes, causes malignant disease. One of the most common forms of asbestos related disease is malignant mesothelioma, an aggressive, deadly, and incurable cancer that kills tens of thousands of people around the world each year. Asbestosis (a severe scarring of the lungs) is also blamed on asbestos, as are some cases of lung cancer and other serious respiratory illnesses. Any exposure to airborne asbestos particles is considered to pose a significant health hazard and must be avoided.

The opening of the BBADRI was called a "hollow gesture" by Sharan Burrow, who is the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Ms. Burrow's comment reflects the ACTU's condemnation of the Australian government's poor record on protecting its citizens, particularly its military personnel, from daily and potentially lethal exposures to asbestos. "Bernie Banton was a genuine Australian hero," Ms. Burrow said. "The opening of a research institute is an appropriate memorial to Bernie," she continued, "but the legacy of his courageous campaign must be carried on with a full-scale inquiry into the eradication of asbestos."

The Age, one of Australia's largest newspaper recently published the findings of a government report that documented countless violations of the government's own nationwide ban on human exposures to asbestos-these violations occurring daily within the Australian Navy and other branches of the military. These revelations contributed to new demands for the government to live up to its promise to the Australia people to rid society of the deadly, cancer causing material once and for all.

The most notable call for government action came recently from the ACTU, the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union, the Australian Workers Union, the Community and Public Sector Union, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. The unions and the ACTU are collectively demanding that the Australian government take immediate action to safeguard citizens from all walks of life from the hazards of exposure to asbestos.

The Government's Promises to act said to be Insufficient

The Federal Government has publicly stated its willingness to consider the implementation of a wide-ranging investigation into the use of asbestos in Australia, stating further that such a board of inquiry would have the authorization to collect evidence and compel the testimony of witnesses. No firm commitment to such an inquiry has yet been stated by the government, and the ACTU and its member unions say the proposed government inquiry does not go far enough.

The unions have stated in a letter to the Prime Minister that nothing short of an asbestos-investigating "special task force" is required to address the issue. In the letter, ACTU President Burrow states that, "Asbestos is one of the biggest killers of Australian workers," and she later writes, "It is shameful for the Australian Defence industry to be putting military and civilian lives at risk." The government has yet to respond formally to the ACTU's request for the asbestos investigative task force, and further lobbying efforts by the unions are expected.

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