Australia has had a total prohibition on the import, manufacture, and use of asbestos in any form since 31 December 2003. It is one of the strictest asbestos regimes in the world. And yet, more than two decades later, asbestos continues to be detected in goods crossing the Australian border: in brake pads, gaskets, geothermal heating components, children's crayons, decorative tiles, vermiculite garden products, and a long list of imported construction materials.
For PCBUs sourcing equipment, materials, or finished products from overseas, this is a live compliance risk that few procurement processes are designed to catch. The ban is absolute; the enforcement is necessarily imperfect. The job of closing the gap falls on the importer, and increasingly on the businesses that buy from them.
How asbestos is still getting in
Three structural factors drive the ongoing detection of imported asbestos:
1. Foreign manufacturing standards differ
Many countries still permit some forms of asbestos in industrial and consumer products. Chrysotile, in particular, remains legal in parts of Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe. Products manufactured in those jurisdictions may legally contain asbestos at the point of production and simply be exported without alteration.
2. Test certificates are not always reliable
Importers commonly rely on supplier-issued certificates of analysis to confirm that goods are asbestos-free. The Australian Border Force (ABF) has repeatedly identified cases where supplier certificates were inaccurate, outdated, or referred to a different batch from the one shipped. A certificate is a useful piece of evidence but not, on its own, a defence.
3. Mislabelling and substitution in the supply chain
The longer the supply chain between manufacturer and Australian importer, the more opportunities exist for substitution: a cheaper, asbestos-containing component replacing the original spec without notification. This is particularly common in mass-produced industrial products like friction materials, gaskets, and sealing compounds.
What customs and ASSEA are seeing
The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency (ASSEA) and the ABF both publish information on asbestos detected in imported goods. While the volume of detected shipments is small compared with total trade, the categories where positive results recur are consistent and worth memorising for procurement teams:
- Automotive and heavy equipment friction materials: brake pads, brake shoes, clutch discs, particularly aftermarket parts from non-OEM suppliers
- Gaskets, packing, and sealing materials for industrial and mining applications
- Crayons, children's toys, and novelty products containing talc contaminated with tremolite
- Vermiculite garden and insulation products historically linked to mines with asbestos contamination
- Decorative or specialty tiles, slabs, and benchtops from regions with continuing asbestos use
- Geothermal heating pads and electrical components sourced from older overseas manufacturing lines
- Reconditioned or used industrial machinery imported with original gaskets and friction parts still installed
If your business sources any of these categories from overseas (directly or through a domestic re-seller), you sit inside the import-risk zone, whether you realise it or not.
Importer obligations under Australian law
The legal position is uncompromising. Under Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations and the Work Health and Safety Regulations, importing or using asbestos-containing material is prohibited. Penalties are substantial (both civil and, in serious cases, criminal) and apply to the importer regardless of intent or knowledge.
"I trusted the supplier" is not a defence. The ABF expects importers to take active, documented steps to verify that goods are asbestos-free before they reach the wharf. In practice, that means:
- Pre-shipment sampling and independent laboratory testing by an accredited testing facility, particularly for high-risk product categories
- Written supplier declarations specific to the batch being shipped, not generic statements
- Verifiable accreditation of the testing laboratory the supplier used (NATA-equivalent recognition)
- Contractual rights to inspect, sample, and reject shipments at the importer's discretion
- A documented decision process showing how risk was assessed for each category of imported product
Why this matters even if you don't import directly
Most commercial property managers and facilities operators do not appear on import documentation themselves. But they buy from suppliers who do: automotive parts wholesalers, building products distributors, plant maintenance contractors, landscape suppliers. The asbestos that ends up in your workshop, plant room, or fitout was almost always imported by someone further upstream.
If asbestos is later detected in a product on your site, the regulator will work back through the supply chain. Your defensibility depends on having asked the right questions of your supplier, and being able to produce evidence that you did.
Pragmatic procurement controls for non-importing PCBUs:
- Add an explicit asbestos-free warranty clause to supplier contracts for imported goods
- Request country of origin and manufacturer details, not just the supplier's name
- For higher-risk categories (friction materials, gaskets, decorative stone, vermiculite), require evidence of independent testing
- Maintain a register of imported product categories used at your sites, so that any future detection event can be traced quickly
- Brief maintenance and fitout contractors that bringing in unapproved imported parts (e.g., a "cheap equivalent" gasket sourced overseas) is grounds for contract termination
What to do if you suspect a product on site contains asbestos
The same response framework applies whether the asbestos was original to the building or arrived in a recent shipment:
- Stop using or disturbing the suspect product
- Restrict access and isolate the affected area
- Engage a licensed asbestos assessor to sample and confirm
- If confirmed, notify the relevant state or territory WHS regulator and, where the source is an imported product, report it to the ABF
- Trace the supplier and product back through your procurement records. Your supplier needs to know, and so do other buyers who may have the same batch
- Engage a licensed removalist for any removal that meets the threshold for licensed work
The total ban is the start, not the finish
Australia's 2003 import ban removed asbestos from the legal economy. It did not, and could not, remove it from the global supply chains we still buy from. Every PCBU that imports goods, or that buys from anyone who does, has inherited a residual compliance duty that procurement teams routinely under-resource. The businesses that take this seriously build it into supplier onboarding, contracts, and category-level risk assessments. They treat any detection event not as bad luck, but as a failure of their own controls to catch what the system was always going to occasionally let through.