Bernard (Bernie) Douglas Banton was an Australian advocate for people suffering from asbestos associated diseases and social injustice, the campaigner was born in Sydney on the 13th of October in 1946, he had begun his profession at James Hardie & Co Pty Ltd From 1968 to 1974. James Hardie is an industrial building materials corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company specializes in the manufacturing and shipping of fibre cement products and develops materials for the production of a variety of building materials. Banton had worked as a bathe operator, shaping blocks of asbestos for use in power stations and making asbestos pipe sections. He was widely embraced as the face of legal and political campaign to achieve compensation
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However given the change of law in 1996 Mr Banton acquired a second claim to be made, Ms Segelov said that "remarkably" Mr Banton was the first plaintiff to claim such further damages”. In 2004, a NSW special commission of inquiry was formed to look into the James Hardie Company and asbestos Banton often attended the hearings and had become extremely outraged about what had happened to his fellow workers. He was articulate and passionate, and a driven spokesperson representative to battle against a big business. Banton rallied for the palliative-care drug Alimta for mesothelioma sufferers to be diminished by the government and organised a petition to the government. In December 2006, James Hardie agreed to a $4 billion compensation package for the sufferers of asbestos-related diseases. This involved conferences and negotiations day in and day out over a number of years. In August 2007 Banton was shattered to learn that he had contracted a further asbestos-related disease (asbestosis, asbestosis-related pleural disease and peritoneal mesothelioma, an abdominal cancer). Despite the heart-breaking news he swore to fight on, Banton’s lawyers filed a compensation claim on the fund which he fought to set up for the company’s asbestos victims. The second hearing was held in the Dust Diseases Tribunal it was settled out of court on the third day of the hearing, Banton gave evidence from his bedside in the Concord Hospital. He died just three days later it was the end of a fighter and although he is gone he is surely not
However given the change of law in 1996 Mr Banton acquired a second claim to be made, Ms Segelov said that "remarkably" Mr Banton was the first plaintiff to claim such further damages”. In 2004, a NSW special commission of inquiry was formed to look into the James Hardie Company and asbestos Banton often attended the hearings and had become extremely outraged about what had happened to his fellow workers. He was articulate and passionate, and a driven spokesperson representative to battle against a big business. Banton rallied for the palliative-care drug Alimta for mesothelioma sufferers to be diminished by the government and organised a petition to the government. In December 2006, James Hardie agreed to a $4 billion compensation package for the sufferers of asbestos-related diseases. This involved conferences and negotiations day in and day out over a number of years. In August 2007 Banton was shattered to learn that he had contracted a further asbestos-related disease (asbestosis, asbestosis-related pleural disease and peritoneal mesothelioma, an abdominal cancer). Despite the heart-breaking news he swore to fight on, Banton’s lawyers filed a compensation claim on the fund which he fought to set up for the company’s asbestos victims. The second hearing was held in the Dust Diseases Tribunal it was settled out of court on the third day of the hearing, Banton gave evidence from his bedside in the Concord Hospital. He died just three days later it was the end of a fighter and although he is gone he is surely not