Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition back then treated workers who were dying of asbestosis in a shameful way. It was a blight on this nation. Bernie was a worker, as I understand it, who after many years of working on the wharves had developed asbestosis. In 2007 the then Minister for Health, Tony Abbott, now the Leader of the Opposition, made an outrageous claim that Bernie Banton was only doing what he was for political reasons. The reality is that Bernie was dying of a deadly disease that he suffered because of the work that he undertook for many years, particularly, I think, in New South Wales. The reality is that the Liberal Party and Tony Abbott do not care about the rights of workers in the workplace.

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