CFMEU pledges to keep fighting until engineered stone ban is implemented

The national construction union has vowed to continue its fight to ban engineered stone until the measure is in place after federal and state governments took a major step towards prohibiting the deadly product. Work Health and Safety Ministers on Tuesday unanimously agreed to task Safe Work Australia with determining the details of an engineered stone ban. A ban would be implemented alongside a licensing system for engineered stone already in Australia including kitchen and bathroom bench tops. The CFMEU’s Stop The Killer Stone campaign has been calling on governments to ban engineered stone. Incoming CFMEU National Secretary Zach Smith said: “Today is a great step towards banning this killer stone. But our Union will not rest until it’s illegal to import and manufacture engineered stone in Australia. “The CFMEU’s position is unmoved. If Governments don’t carry through on banning engineered stone, the Union will. July 2024 remains our deadline. “All credit for today’s progress must go to silicosis sufferers including Kyle Goodwin, the brave former stonemason who has fronted the CFMEU’s Stop The Killer Stone campaign. “Governments owe it to Kyle and every other worker who has contracted a deadly dust disease from these products to walk the walk and ban engineered stone once Safe Work Australia determines the finer details. “Alongside a ban, we think it’s a sensible step for ministers commit to a licensing scheme for products already out there, similar to the way asbestos is dealt with. “But you can’t have one without the other. That’s why it’s absolutely critical this commitment becomes an enforceable ban as soon as possible.”