Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this important bill, the Customs Amendment (Expedited Seizure and Disposal of Engineered Stone) Bill 2024. We're placing a few brief remarks on the record here. Senator David Shoebridge, who has been pursuing this issue for a number of years, will speak to it at more length when the matter goes to the Senate.

No-one should have to die for a shiny benchtop. Yet, for years, manufactured stone has been silently killing young workers around the country. This deadly material is the asbestos of our time, causing incurable silicosis and destroying lives. That's why the Greens strongly welcome decisive action to ban it. For years we have backed the call from construction unions and other unions for a ban.

We've seen firsthand the devastating toll—workers suffering slow, painful deaths and families left shattered. We've heard their pleas for action and we've fought alongside them. Greens senator David Shoebridge has been leading this fight since 2019. He was a driving force behind the New South Wales parliament review in 2020 and in a dissenting statement called for an urgent ban. As he said:

Every month and year we delay, more workers will be exposed to the risk of deadly silicosis. No shiny benchtop is worth that.

For too long manufacturers and developers have resisted a ban, insisting that site-specific controls were enough—just as James Hardie once did. We know from bitter experience and lives lost that these controls fail to protect workers. The only responsible solution is a total ban, yet as recently as mid-2023 SafeWork was still claiming high-silica manufactured stone could be used safely. The cost of that delay has been paid for in lives. It's time to act, because no benchtop is worth a worker's life. We strongly support the bill today.

The bill amends the Customs Act to support the ban on the importation of manufactured stone, being an artificial product, that contains one per cent or more crystalline silica. It strengthens seizure and disposal powers to help the Australian Border Force manage manufactured and engineered stone goods at the border. Currently the act requires these prohibited imports to be stored for at least 30 days before disposal. This bill will empower the Comptroller-General of Customs to cause engineered stone products seized as prohibited imports on and from 1 January 2025 to be dealt with as they determine appropriate, including permitting immediate destruction. This will mean engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs will only be able to be imported into Australia with a valid import permit or an applicable exemption. Similar provisions exist in laws for vapes, illegal tobacco and other banned products. Given the high volume of such products, retaining this storage requirement will significantly increase workload, complicate storage and transport, and hinder both the import ban and other border operations.

Finally, it's critical to note that a ban needs to be just the start. We know that the young tradies who have been working with manufactured stone and get sick need quality medical support and will likely require compensation. Within Australia, we face the impossible situation that manufacturers of this product weren't able to get insurance, meaning that workers risk being stranded without compensation for the deadly disease that they are experiencing. Of course, the parallels in this country with the history of asbestos are clear, but in many ways the risks are greater from manufactured stone at the moment than they were with James Hardie because manufactured-stone producers have no production facilities or other assets in Australia to meet the claims in the absence of insurance. This means that whenever Caesarstone think it's no longer profitable to be involved in the Australian market they can cease operating, and given the lack of insurance there will be zero assets from which fabricators, tradies or home renovators with silicosis can recover damages. This needs to be avoided.

To conclude, our Greens senator David Shoebridge has been calling for a ban on the use of manufactured stone, because of the risks, since 2020. As I said, he was a driving force behind the New South Wales parliament review of the product, and his dissenting statement called for an urgent banning of the product. To repeat his words:

Every month and year we delay, more workers will be exposed to the risk of deadly silicosis. No shiny benchtop is worth that.

We support this legislation.

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