Ian Wright

contentious.

I've actually seen the message that came from the US EPA in the year 2000, advising that 3M is moving out of this business.

Yet it was nearly a decade later that the firefighting authorities in Australia got the message and stopped using the PFAS chemicals.

But the lawsuit that the Commonwealth is seeking will pay for those sort of expenses, but more importantly, the cleanup, the rehabilitation of contaminated soil, contaminated plants, and contaminated water.

And I know $2 billion is an enormous sum of money.

I don't think it's going to get close to cleaning up this problem, though.

I think it's really good that this is going to get to court.

And I think if I was the Australian government, I would be contacting the US EPA and swapping information because they successfully sued 3M for something north of $10 billion.

So yes, we may have used the chemicals for longer once Australia knew they were dangerous,

But I think, and I've read material suggesting that 3M knew this was dangerous in the 1960s.

Yet the PFAS chemicals, and particularly the firefighting foam, and it's specifically that that has contaminated the military bases, that was used throughout the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and was wound down in the 2000s.

So I think there's important questions to ask.

When did 3M know this was dangerous?

And I think it goes way back.

I absolutely support that.

And I can't understand why, for example, this wouldn't also include Department of Health, the Commonwealth Department of Health, because this is placing a burden, a health burden on the whole Australian medical system.

And I've had direct contact with people that

have been contaminated with PFAS chemicals.

They are contaminated with it.

I'm specifically talking about the Blue Mountains community that two years ago learnt that their water supply had been contaminated by PFAS.