An Australian company that built portable buildings using asbestos-contaminated materials from China is fighting calls for it to be removed.

Adelaide-based Robin Johnson Engineering (RJE) is challenging SafeWork NSW at the Industrial Relations Commission, after the safety regulator called for the tainted flooring in a switch room at the Taralga wind farm near Sydney to be removed.

Unions NSW wants the asbestos to be removed too.

“To say that people who import it out of a technicality can get out of any responsibility for cleaning up their mess is a very bad precedent to be set,” he said.

RJE has argued that removing the tainted material would create new risks.

“There are no foreseeable activities that will involve disturbing the asbestos-containing materials,” court documents say.

RJE unwittingly used the material in over 60 portable buildings at various locations across Australia.

“RJE may have unwittingly undertaken 'work involving asbestos', to the extent that it supplied, transported, stored, used, installed or disturbed the ACM (asbestos-containing materials) when constructing the switch room,” its court submission said.

“However, any such contravention is historical and Taralga has not itself personally directed or allowed a person to carry out work involving asbestos.”

The company has reportedly removed asbestos from some contaminated sites, but will not give detail.

The unions have called for a national procurement register to be set up, including strict penalties for companies that import asbestos-contaminated products.

They also want a dedicated unit in the Australian Border Force to look for asbestos-laden materials.