James Hardie is back as a major sponsor for the Parramatta Eels – but some are calling for the funds to go towards clearing asbestos from the city, instead of lining the pockets of the NRL club.
At a recent City of Parramatta meeting, Independent Councillor Kellie Darley implored the local Council to seek financial assistance in the remediation of James Hardie legacy sites across the local Government Area (LGA), instead of having to foot the bill themselves.
The push comes after the company announced it would be the Eels front-of-jersey sponsor, as of 2025.
When it was announced, James Hardie said the sponsorship aligned neatly with the company’s state purpose – ‘Building a Better Future for All’.
“We’re making a commitment to the football team, but we see this as a much greater commitment to Parramatta and western Sydney,” James Hardie CEO, Aaron Erter said.
“The Eels’ purpose is to ‘uplift lives, deliver unforgettable moments and bring communities together’, and this matters to James Hardie.”
James Hardie was the nation’s biggest supplier of asbestos for decades, before it eventually developed asbestos-free fibre cement technology in the mid-1980s.
It’s estimated that around 4,000 people still die each year from asbestos, a product that was manufactured at the Camellia-based factory.
In Parramatta, Council has estimated it would cost a whopping $36.6 million to remediate James Hardie legacy sites across the LGA.
This is on top of the $10 million that has already been spent to remediate asbestos contamination due to James Hardie.
Darley said it was a “real kick in the guts” to hear the company was back in town to sponsor the Eels, instead of helping to cover the cost of removing asbestos in the area where its factory was once based.
“Right now, our community is paying to remediate the pollution they’ve left in our city, a million dollars a year,” she said.
“Why should we, as Council and the community, be paying for the remediation?
“It is not our mess and we are being required to clean up after it.”
In 2017, the NSW Ombudsman recommended that where James Hardie asbestos waste contamination is identified, those sites should be remediated at NSW Government expense.
Darley called on her fellow Councillors to advocate for both the current NSW Government and James Hardie to cover the expense of remediating the Parramatta sites.
“I think it’s our responsibility to ensure we have a funding source that doesn’t rely on the residents of our community to clean up the mess of a corporate that has come back into our city sponsoring Parramatta Eels,” she added.
However, after much debate, the Council ultimately voted not to request James Hardie’s assistance with the remediation of the local sites.
Instead, they elected for a report to be provided on the remediation program for the sites, including the projected schedule of work remaining.
Councillor Lorraine Wearne said it was not Council’s job to find funding sources to fix the legacy sites.
“We all know the tragedy of asbestos, but it is not this Council’s job to actually even be looking for methods of funding the restoration and clearance of those sites,” she said.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.