Sydney - Bernie Banton, who became an Australian hero for leading a compensation campaign for asbestosis sufferers against Dutch-based building products manufacturer James Hardie Industries, died Tuesday from lung disease at the age of 61. He contracted asbestosis after working in a James Hardie asbestos plant in Sydney in the 1960s and 1970s.
Banton was the public face of a campaign that in 2005 forced James Hardie into signing a multibillion-dollar agreement to fund the health care of Australians who developed illnesses from contact with its asbestos products although Banton accused James Hardie of shifting its headquarters to the Netherlands to escape paying proper compensation to asbestosis victims.
The agreement set up a compensation fund of 4.5 billion Australian dollars (3.2 billion US dollars). James Hardie also agreed to provide 5 million Australian dollars over 10 years to fund medical research into asbestos-related diseases.
"I don't sense any sense of victory today," he said at the 2005 signing. "I just feel that we have finally got justice for sufferers into the future. The money represents justice to all these families."
Martin Kingham, president of the Asbestos Diseases Society, said Banton continued to campaign against asbestos despite his diagnosis with mesothelioma.
"He was a man like hundreds of thousands of others who contracted asbestosis," Martin said.
Prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd said he was glad Banton would be given a state funeral in Sydney. "He became a symbol, a living symbol, of what is right and decent and proper in the workplace relations of this country," Rudd said.
