Mesothelioma Articles

Hardie under fire

Posted: September 16, 2004

Source: Herald and Weekly Times

A 15,000-strong rally outside the stock exchange in Melbourne yesterday heard a bishop accuse James Hardie of evading its moral obligation to victims of asbestos-related diseases.

The massive protest, which was part of a national day of action against the building products giant, also heard from a 63-year-old grandfather who is dying from asbestos-triggered mesothelioma.

Stewart Beckworth said that in January, after learning he had a maximum 16 months to live, James Hardie's response to his plea for help was for him to go to a local solicitor.

"The building trade is a tough field . . . but when I did it, I didn't expect to be poisoned by the guys who were asking me to buy their products," Mr Beckworth said.

By 2020 about 18,000 Australians are expected to die from mesothelioma, the deadliest asbestos-related disease.

According to the Asbestos Diseases Society of Victoria, Australia had the world's highest per capita use of asbestos products from the 1950s to the 1970s and now had the highest per capita incidence of incurable mesothelioma.

James Hardie was Australia's largest manufacturer of asbestos.

Bishop Phillip Huggins told yesterday's rally James Hardie had intentionally and cynically tried to avoid fully compensating those dying from its products.

"The scriptures say, 'What does it profit someone to gain the whole world, if they lose their soul. It profits them nothing'," Bishop Huggins said. The leader of Anglicans in Victoria's northern region said he joined the protest against James Hardie after burying too many people killed by asbestos-related diseases.

"I have sat in their living rooms and watched their lives drain away," he said.

Marchers in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane also slammed James Hardie, accusing it of trying to avoid paying asbestos victims full compensation by moving to the Netherlands.

The protest marches coincided with a James Hardie shareholders information meeting held in Sydney.

The company's annual general meeting is on Friday in Amsterdam.

James Hardie has admitted to a New South Wales Commission of Inquiry that the $293 million it set aside to compensate victims of its asbestos products was at least $1.2 billion short.

But it denies it moved to the Netherlands to avoid paying full compensation to people.

James Hardie spokesman John Noble yesterday said the company had always been prepared to fully compensate legitimate victims.

But yesterday Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard told the Melbourne crowd the Netherlands was one of only two European countries where Australian court judgments were unenforceable.

He said James Hardies's plan to boost its compensation offer if Australian governments set up statutory schemes to distribute the compensation amounted to blackmail.

Mr Hubbard said it was an attempt to limit compensation payouts by depriving victims of their legal rights.

He said James Hardie's attempts to avoid paying full compensation were a "new standard in boardroom bastardry".

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