Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the weekend, the Prime Minister visited a Northern Territory defence base to spruik a billion-dollar investment. The community he was in was Katherine, and they're living in a PFAS-contaminated town. Their town water is contaminated. When he was asked about the PFAS issue, he said:

… previous governments have just kicked that can down the road. Our government hasn't, we've stepped up …

I'd like to remind the Prime Minister that the previous governments he is referring to are Liberal governments. They are the Abbott and Turnbull governments—coalition governments, to be specific. The Prime Minister has 'stepped up' so considerably that residents in Williamtown in my electorate—along with residents in Katherine, Northern Territory, and Oakey, Queensland—have been forced to take court action against their own government, which they elected to serve them. After it failed last year, mediation in the class action commences tomorrow. So they're back mediating tomorrow to try and come up with a solution. I am pleading with this government to sort this out. They need to get into that mediation room tomorrow and face our communities in good faith. Be model litigants. Do the right thing. Stop the hell that these people are being dragged through by their very own government, Prime Minister. Do something. Show your big heart.