An Indigenous man who has developed the fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma is unlikely to receive compensation from the company that operated an asbestos mine in his hometown.
Ffloyd Laurie, 55, was exposed regularly to large piles of asbestos as a child growing up near James Hardie’s white asbestos mine in Baryulgil in northern NSW.
Mr Laurie recalls large piles of asbestos would be dumped in the school playground, where as children they would play and even eat the deadly material.
But the former asbestos multinational is unlikely to pay Mr Laurie any compensation, under an agreement struck between the NSW government and James Hardie in 2005 after it moved offshore.
The special clause means that the company can only be sued as a “defendant of last resort” meaning affected residents of the town have to sue the NSW Department of Education instead.
ABC journalist Matt Peacock has been following the issue since the 1970s and has written a history of the asbestos company.
