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Government launches 'largest ever' $2bn legal action against 3M over Pfas contamination
The government is seeking $2bn in damages from 3M to recover costs relating to Pfas “forever chemicals” in firefighting foam at 28 defence bases across Australia.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, says this is the largest legal claim ever brought by the government.
She says that 3M withheld information and misrepresented the effects of 3M’s aqueous film-forming foam.
At a press conference, Rowland claimed:
This misconduct has contributed to substantial costs for Defence and the Australian taxpayer, including over $1bn to date to investigate, remediate and mitigate Pfas contamination at Defence estate sites.
Make no mistake – this legal action against 3M is significant.
This is a government that is prepared to take on one of the biggest multinational corporations in the world for the betterment of Australian citizens.
Rowland says 3M withheld its own environmental laboratory testing, which showed “there was significant adverse environmental effects associated with the use of 3M firefighting foam” and represented that the foam could be safely disposed of, was biodegradable and not toxic.
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‘80% of investment lending flows into existing homes’: O’Neil
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil says more than 80% of investment lending flows into existing homes, pushed by generous CGT discounts and negative gearing.
Justifying the government’s contentious tax changes to housing at the Press Club, she says that the housing system is “broken”.
She says that it’s led to young Australians “putting off having children” because they can’t get secure housing.
They [CGT and negative gearing] unwittingly turned established, detached homes into the most lucrative, low-risk investment in Australia and investors piled into the market.
More than 80% of investment lending flows into existing homes, not the construction of new ones
So Australia created a perfect storm for housing.
Federal police confirm another woman who arrived from Syrian camp has been charged
Federal police have charged a 34-year-old woman who returned to Australia from a Syrian camp in September 2025, for allegedly entering a declared conflict zone and joining Isis.
Deputy commissioner Hilda Sirec is providing updates at a press conference in Canberra.
She says that the woman will face charges of “entering or remaining in a declared area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.” Both offences carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Sirec says that investigations are continuing on all the women who have recently arrived from the Al-Roj camp.
It will be alleged the woman travelled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 to join Isis. The woman was detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019, and held with her other family members in an internally displaced persons camp. She returned to Australia on 26 September 2025.
I will confirm investigations are continuing in all recent adult female returnees who spent time in internally displaced persons camps in Syria.
Patrick Commins
Housing minister announces inquiry into building ahead of ‘next wave of reforms’
Clare O’Neil, the housing minister, has announced that the Productivity Commission will conduct an inquiry into “the remaining regulatory barriers holding back housing supply”.
Speaking at the Press Club, O’Neil said the inquiry will help the government “tackle the next wave of reforms”, focused on red tape and regulation.
Before the first-ever meeting of federal and state and territory housing and planning ministers tomorrow, O’Neil in her address said “restrictive planning” rules added about $140,000 to the cost of a new home.
We have seen significant planning reform in some states and territories. We need to see more.
Alongside planning, the other “big, immediate area” for reform was modernising the way we build homes, the minister said.
That is why we are backing prefab and modular housing through a national certification scheme, and support through the national productivity fund.
The NPF is a $900m fund aimed at rewarding states for pursuing productivity enhancing reforms.
There will be an extra $40m to a national “kit of parts” program, O’Neil said.
It means building smarter and faster, using standardised components like bathroom pods, wall panels and facades.
The PC has previously found that we are building fewer homes per hour worked by builders than we did 30 years ago.
According to estimates by the Housing Supply and Affordability Council, Labor will achieve its five-year target of building 1.2 million new homes by September 2030, or 15 months after its self-imposed deadline.
Cait Kelly
Household spending falls 1.1% in April
Household spending fell 1.1% in April, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
This follows a rise of 1.6% in March and a rise of 0.3% in February.
Tom Lay, the ABS head of business statistics, said:
The 4.7% drop in transport costs was the main driver for the 1.1% fall in household spending in April.
Annual household spending was up 4.9% compared to April 2025, slowing from the 6.2% annual rise in March.
The fall in transport spending reflected widespread impacts and responses to the conflict in the Middle East. Air transport was the largest contributor to the decline, as households scaled back travel in response to broader uncertainties and higher air fares.
Amanda Meade
ABC is trialling the use of AI to rewrite radio bulletins for online
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has confirmed the ABC is trialling the use of AI to rewrite radio reports for a digital audience.
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson asked Marks if AI would replace the jobs of junior journalists.
What consultation have you done with staff on this, particularly in northern Tasmania? They might see an AI program being rolled out and kind of wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg in relation to their jobs.
Marks said AI is already used in the ABC’s emergency broadcasting and had a wide application.
He said it could be an “amazing tool” but is not a replacement for people: “It’s a resource for people to use to do their work.
Well, I don’t think this is cutting jobs. This is us making the most of the jobs that exist, and also that journalism, in terms of our work, and trying to work with other local media players. We’ve done this now with emergency broadcasting, but this is another option for us, once the journalism is in written form.
Melbourne woman who returned from Syria in September charged by AFP over alleged Islamic State links
Nino Bucci
A Melbourne woman who returned from Syria with her family in September is the latest person charged by the AFP with criminal offences linked to the Islamic State group.
Despite the charges coming only days after a separate cohort of Australians returned to the country, Guardian Australia has confirmed the charges relate to a woman who has lived in Melbourne without incident for the past seven months.
It is understood she was arrested earlier on Thursday, with the Australian federal police expected to confirm further details of her charges by officers tasked to Operation Kurrajong in an upcoming press conference.
Last year, the woman, another woman and four children escaped the notorious al-Hawl detention camp in north-east Syria, travelling more than 500km to cross the Lebanese border, where they were able to obtain Australian documents in Beirut.
They underwent identity and security screenings in Beirut before travelling to Australia by a commercial flight last year.
Guardian Australia understands the pair also were in contact with authorities in Melbourne before their return.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said of the latest charges:
I’ve heard those reports. I have absolute confidence in our security and law enforcement agencies, and I’m sure that they will provide updates in due course.
Luca Ittimani
Former Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal no longer at ABC
The ABC says Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal is no longer working for the public broadcaster after an investigation into the former bikie’s role in a podcast sponsored by an online casino.
An ABC spokesperson did not say why Fazal had left or whether he left voluntarily. They said:
Mahmood Fazal is no longer employed at the ABC. We do not comment on individual staff matters.
Fazal last year appeared in the external podcast about underworld crime with the Melbourne producer Ryan Naumenko, who described himself as once having associated with the mafia. The Walkley award-winning journalist, whose last Four Corners episode in August was about the sovereign citizen movement, got initial approval to take part in the podcast but it was withdrawn after the first episode contained gambling ads. An ABC spokesperson said in October:
Mahmood’s immediate manager endorsed him taking part in a podcast interview, based on the information provided to him.
The broadcaster’s managing director, Hugh Marks, told the Press Club in November the ABC was being careful after the federal court found it had unlawfully terminated Antoinette Lattouf’s employment. Marks said at the time:
When something goes wrong, follow the process. Make sure we do all the things that are necessary to have a rigorous and thoughtful investigation of whatever occurs. So we’re going through that process … I can’t give you a date as to when it will finish, but it’s important that we follow the process and we do it in a respectful, measured, considered way.
Fazal has been contacted for comment. In a statement on his behalf to the ABC’s Media Watch in October, the lawyer Rebekah Giles said:
Mr Fazal agreed to be interviewed by Mr Naumenko believing he had his manager’s approval to do so.
Fazal had been on leave during the investigation. He is a former reporter for Vice and a former sergeant-at-arms of the outlaw bikie gang the Mongols, which he has written about for the ABC. He joined the national broadcaster as a reporter in 2021.
Rowland won’t confirm reports of charges against another women returning from Syria
The attorney general is asked about reports this morning that the AFP have charged a woman who arrived from a Syrian detention camp.
She says she has “heard those reports” but will not confirm:
I have absolute confidence in our security and law enforcement agencies, and I’m sure that they will provide updates in due course.
Asked later what she would say to Australians concerned about their security after the return of the cohort, Rowland says Australia’s security agencies are “the best in the world” and reiterates that the government did not provide any assistance to the women or children.
She says broadly:
There are consequences for people’s actions and that is the case, as we have seen, where there are a number of Australian citizens who have been charged with very serious offences.
$2bn claim to cover past and future remediation of Pfas
The government says it has already spent $1.3bn in remediation and will continue to incur costs to deal with the impacts of forever chemicals in Pfas.
The assistant defence minister, Peter Khalil, says defence has done “significant work” in remediating Pfas including removing 200,000 tonnes of contaminated soil and removing Pfas from water sources.
We’ve provided alternative water sources for communities been affected. So, there’s been a significant investment and a lot of work done.
And we’re seeking recovery of those costs and for future costs that we expect will future costs that we expect will future costs that we expect will arise in the ongoing work that needs to be done to deal with Pfas contamination.
Asked whether the government’s claim will go to any alleged health consequences from Pfas, Khalil says:
This is not a case about personal injury or health or health claims. It is solely focused on the environmental, economic and cultural impacts and the costs that we’ve incurred in dealing with those impacts.
Government launches 'largest ever' $2bn legal action against 3M over Pfas contamination
The government is seeking $2bn in damages from 3M to recover costs relating to Pfas “forever chemicals” in firefighting foam at 28 defence bases across Australia.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, says this is the largest legal claim ever brought by the government.
She says that 3M withheld information and misrepresented the effects of 3M’s aqueous film-forming foam.
At a press conference, Rowland claimed:
This misconduct has contributed to substantial costs for Defence and the Australian taxpayer, including over $1bn to date to investigate, remediate and mitigate Pfas contamination at Defence estate sites.
Make no mistake – this legal action against 3M is significant.
This is a government that is prepared to take on one of the biggest multinational corporations in the world for the betterment of Australian citizens.
Rowland says 3M withheld its own environmental laboratory testing, which showed “there was significant adverse environmental effects associated with the use of 3M firefighting foam” and represented that the foam could be safely disposed of, was biodegradable and not toxic.
Labor’s CGT changes to face Senate inquiry
Labor’s changes to the capital gains tax discount will face scrutiny from a Senate inquiry, which will report back by 22 June.
The Coalition said it would push for an inquiry but turns out the bill will be automatically referred to the Senate economics legislation committee because it has provisions that are due to commence on 1 July this year.
The Greens’ economics spokesperson, Nick McKim, says the minor party will use the inquiry to examine “why Labor decided to leave in place the vast majority of tax handouts for the ultra wealthy”.
This bill is a missed opportunity to finally put people ahead of profits and make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. Labor’s extremely generous grandparenting provisions have left so much money on the table.
Kirribilli House or The Lodge, Taylor asked
It’s the question that created headlines and headache for former Liberal leader Peter Dutton, who said that he would live in Sydney’s Kirribilli House if he became prime minister, when asked during a commercial radio interview. He faced accusations of “measuring the curtains” by Labor at the time.
Today, Taylor was tested with the very same question, and perhaps knowing the pain it caused his predecessor didn’t want to bite.
He called it a “bizarre” question.
I love living where I do now. Seriously, this is sort of a bizarre question, I have to say. At this point, right now, my focus is on axing Labor’s toxic taxes.
‘A great man, a great friend’: Taylor backs Abbott as Liberal president
Angus Taylor says he welcomes former prime minister Tony Abbott to take on the role of federal Liberal president. Abbott is the only nominee for the role, which will be voted on at the party conference this weekend.
At the doorstop earlier, Taylor said Abbott was a deeply committed Australian and Liberal.
He ignored a question asking what he would say to colleagues who think that they’re about to have a co-opposition leader. Taylor said:
I welcome him to the role, because he’s been one of our most successful opposition leaders in history, and he’s going to work with me and rebuild the party.
Tony and I have known each other a long while. We continue to stay in touch … He is a great man, a great friend, a great colleague and a great Australian.
Amanda Meade
Hugh Marks repeatedly asked if Simon Robinson is the new director of ABC news
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has been asked twice to confirm a report in Guardian Australia that Simon Robinson has been appointed news director of the ABC.
Marks said the ABC did not leak the story to Guardian Australia and that it was a result of “good journalism”.
I assume that speculation has led to someone trying to get the jump on the announcement. So, [it was] good journalism.
Earlier senator Mehreen Faruqi asked Marks if the news report was true but he declined to confirm or deny.
[Is] Simon Robinson from Reuters being appointed as the news director of the ABC?
Marks declined to confirm the reports.
When an appointment is ready to be made, we will make that appointment, and I expect to make one in the near future.
Faruqi said the news is out now “so you could just tell us now”.
Marks responded:
I’m not prone to making announcements in Senate estimates proceedings. I prefer to make announcements in the appropriate way.
Marks was then asked by Senator Sarah Henderson if the story in Guardian Australia was accurate and he said he won’t confirm or deny.
Henderson asked if the ABC had “briefed out” the appointment of Robinson.
Marks said he did not authorise any leak to Guardian Australia but there was widespread speculation about the Stevens replacement as soon as it was announced yesterday.
Henderson repeatedly asked if the ABC had leaked the story, claiming it was obvious.
Did you ask anyone, or authorise for anyone to brief this story out? Do you know whether anyone within the organisation briefed this out?
Marks said he did not authorise it and an announcement would be made on Friday.
