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.
The health minister, Mark Butler, says the six passengers who were repatriated from the hantavirus ship, including four Australians will be in quarantine in WA for 42 days, based on health advice from the World Health Organisation.
Providing an update on the situation in Parliament, Butler says that the WHO believes the incubation period for hantavirus is 42 days, meaning the group will remain in quarantine for another three weeks.
Butler says that of the 13 people who have been diagnosed with hantavirus, three have died, indicating “how serious this virus can be”.
23 countries have taken passengers back from that cruise ship, have put in place a range of different quarantine arrangements, some of them tightly managed, like ours, some of them more home-based quarantine.
On the weekend, a crew member from the cruise ship in the Netherlands tested positive, and only in the last day or so, a passenger from the cruise ship in Spain has also tested positive, confirming the risk of transmission of disembarkation has not passed.
The sister of a Melbourne woman charged with remaining in a declared conflict zone and joining Islamic State remains under investigation, counter-terror police say.
Rayann El Houli, 34, was charged on Thursday with the offences, which carry maximum penalties of 10 years in prison.
She is expected to face the Melbourne magistrates court later on Thursday.
El Houli returned from Syria with her sister, 36, in September last year, along with four children.
Police alleged that she travelled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 with others, including a man, to join Islamic State. The man is believed to be incarcerated in a Middle East prison, the joint counter terrorism team (JCTT) said in a statement.
Victoria JCTT investigations into both women remain ongoing, police said in a statement, adding that they seized a suspected stolen motor vehicle, electronic devices, documents and photographs after houses in Broadmeadows and Fitzroy North were searched on Thursday.
The charges come only days after a separate cohort of Australians returned to the country.
AFP deputy commissioner Hilda Sirec said the JCTTs were continuing to investigate all women who recently returned to Australia from Syria. She said:
These operations are complex, but JCTT investigators are extremely experienced and dedicated to keeping the community safe.
It is important to note that a period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased.
O’Neil skirts question on stamp duty, but jokes she’d love the commonwealth to control the states
Back at the National Press Club, Clare O’Neil is asked whether the government should intervene to abolish stamp duty.
Stamp duty is unpopular but a gigantic revenue raiser for the states. O’Neil has previously called it a “bad tax” but doesn’t want to bite this time, saying “this is completely in the purview of our state and territory governments”.
She then jokes:
I would love to live in a world where the commonwealth controls the states completely.
She gets a few shocked laughs out of that one.
The federal government is probably less enamoured with a couple of particular states and their premiers who have criticised parts of the budget, and proposed changes to CGT.
NSW police minister acknowledges taskforce scaled back before Bondi attack
The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, has acknowledged that a NSW police taskforce launched in October 2023 amid heightened tensions following the conflict in the Middle East, had been scaled back before the Bondi attack.
The royal commission into antisemitism heard evidence from NSW police assistant commissioner Peter McKenna on Tuesday that Operation Shelter, which provided officers to the Chanukah by the Sea event in 2023, but not in 2025 when the attack took place, “had scaled down to being, at that particular time, protest-focused only”.
In question time yesterday, Catley said that Operation Shelter had “never ceased”. Today, in response to a question from the Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, asking her to clarify her comments, Catley read from part of McKenna’s evidence which said NSW police “had moved to a model predominantly relating to protest activity and didn’t have a proactive arm as such”.
Yesterday, NSW police deputy commissioner David Hudson told the royal commission the taskforce existed “in name only” at the time of the 15 December attack.
Government committed to building 1.2m houses to 2029
The government is falling behind its target to build 1.2m new homes over five years to 2029, but Clare O’Neil says Labor is still committed to the goal.
Jumping back to the National Press Club where the housing minister is speaking, O’Neil says that the government could have taken the “politically conservative” approach and set the target lower.
We don’t want to see just incremental improvements on housing, we really want to drive a different system for our country.
This target has already created massive policy change for the country, we’re starting the see the benefits of that.
I’m committed to these targets and I’m doing everything I can … to meet them.
SBS defends not adopting antisemitism definition used by royal commission
The new managing director of SBS, Jane Palfreyman, has defended the multicultural broadcaster’s editorial approach to covering the Israel-Gaza war.
SBS joined the ABC in choosing not to adopt the definition of antisemitism used by the royal commission on social cohesion.
The royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion announced in February that the inquiry would apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
SBS has not adopted the IHRA definition and its internal style guide says that antisemitism is prejudice or discrimination against Jewish people.
“SBS is an independent public broadcaster with a charter focused on strengthening social cohesion, supported by robust editorial standards which are set out in the SBS code of practice,” the broadcaster said earlier this month.
Palfreyman told Senate estimates SBS neither adopts nor rejects definitions from third parties.
Where definitions are relevant to a story, we report them, attribute them and explain their context. That applies to terms including Palestine and antisemitism. Where there are different views, we explain these perspectives so our audiences have the information they need to make up their own mind.
This impartiality and independence is what our audiences expect of us.
This approach is consistent with trusted media organisations in Australia and around the world.
SBS will continue its appearance at estimates after the lunch break.
NT conservation group launches legal action against environment minister over land clearing decision
The Environment Centre NT has launched a legal challenge against the environment minister, Murray Watt, over a decision to approve a massive land clearing application without an assessment under federal nature laws.
Clearing of an area 10 times the size of the Sydney CBD for agricultural development at Claravale farm and station near Katherine was approved by a delegate for the minister in February.
The ECNT is seeking a judicial review of the decision in the federal court. The group alleges the referral should have been rejected because the clearing is part of a larger project that could clear as much as 6,000 hectares of savanna woodland.
The group also alleges the minister failed to apply the precautionary principle when making the decision due to the project’s potential effects on threatened species such as the freshwater sawfish and ghost bat.
A judicial review can only consider whether an error of law was made in reaching the decision. Environment Centre NT’s executive director, Kirsty Howey, said:
We believe Australia’s environment minister failed to do his job when he greenlit a massive deforestation proposal on land that’s home to threatened species like Gouldian finches, red goshawks, freshwater sawfish and ghost bats.
A spokesperson for Watt confirmed the government was aware proceedings had been filed but could not comment while the matter was before the court.
‘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 National 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 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.
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 National 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 National 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.
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.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
