Ads over deadly engineered stone labelled disgrace and misinformation by state treasurer

Manufacturers campaigning to prevent a nationwide ban on the use of engineered stone have been accused of spreading misinformation by NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who compared the current advertising push to the tactics used by concrete manufacturer James Hardie before the nationwide prohibition of asbestos 20 years ago.

Major engineered stone supplier Caesarstone took out newspaper ads last week warning that a blanket ban on the product, linked to the deadly disease silicosis, could harm at-risk tradies and scare households, prompting Mookhey to accuse the global firm of spinning deception.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has accused engineered stone manufacturers of running a misinformation campaign ahead of a potential ban.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

“Can I say in my own personal capacity that having seen that ad yesterday, I thought it was a disgrace, and an attempt at misinformation and misdirection worthy of James Hardie and the worst of their tactics as they fought to stop the regulation of asbestos,” he said.

James Hardie was the manufacturing company commonly associated with asbestos, which causes lung diseases, after it used the substance in many of its building products. In 2005, the company signed an agreement with the NSW government to pay out $4.5 billion for asbestos victims.

Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union national secretary Zach Smith described the ads as “the most blatantly evil corporate campaign I have ever seen”.

“No one needs Caesarstone. It is a product that kills people. And it kills them young,” he said, adding he would be pushing federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke to ignore the company’s “bullshit letters” after it wrote to the minister.

Federal, state and territory ministers will discuss a potential engineered-stone ban on Friday.Credit: Eddie Jim

Caesarstone Australia chief executive David Cullen denied there was anything misleading about the advertising campaign, which was run on behalf of several manufacturers under the banner of the Australian Engineered Stone Advisory Group.

“Despite the rhetoric from the unions, the reality is that a ban on only one product containing silica will not solve silicosis,” Cullen said.

“There is a genuine concern that focusing on only one product containing silica may increase risks to workers by creating the impression that other forms of stone are ‘safe’ and do not require the same level of caution.”

Dubbed the new asbestos, engineered stone can contain up to 95 per cent crystalline silica and is responsible for a surge in irreversible lung disease in stonemasons and other tradespeople. Asbestos was banned nationwide in 2003.

State and federal workplace ministers will meet on Friday to discuss the contents of a secret Safe Work Australia report that, according to sources with knowledge of the report, recommends an all-out ban on engineered stone as one option.

Caesarstone is pushing for a ban only on engineered stone products with a crystalline silica content of more than 40 per cent – an option the NSW government also called for in a submission to Safe Work’s inquiry.

However, Mookhey’s comments could be seen as the state hardening its stance against the product, after Queensland’s Industrial Relations Minister, Grace Grace, called for it to be prohibited.

Calls for a blanket ban were taken up on Tuesday by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which vowed to bar the material, commonly used for kitchen benchtops, from the nation’s building sites by next July if state governments had not acted by then.

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