Government launches bombshell $2 billion lawsuit against 3M Company

The federal government is suing Wall Street giant 3M Company for more than $2 billion in an unprecedented legal claim for damages over the contamination of dozens of communities across Australia with toxic “forever chemicals”.

Announcing the action in the Federal Court of Australia on Thursday, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland levelled a series of extraordinary allegations against the global chemicals maker, accusing it of engaging in a cover-up over the effects of its per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS), which were used for decades by the Department of Defence.

“Let me be clear, this is the largest legal claim ever brought by the Commonwealth,” Rowland told reporters in Canberra.

“Our position is that 3M withheld a range of information and misrepresented the effects of this substance.

“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.”

Prized for their stain, water and heat-repelling abilities, the man-made compounds are hidden in hundreds of everyday consumer products, and have contaminated the blood of nearly every Australian citizen and most of the world’s population since they were invented last century.

The chemicals were used for decades in firefighting foam at Defence bases across Australia, and have contaminated tens of thousands of homes, drinking water, food supplies and vast tracts of land across the country.

A 3M spokeswoman said the company would defend itself against the claims, noting it had never manufactured PFAS in Australia and had ceased sales of the products at issue in Australia around two decades ago.

“Despite this, the Department of Defence continued to use PFAS-containing fire fighting foams for nearly two decades longer, as noted in a recent legislative committee report,” she said.

This masthead has been reporting on the dangers posed by the chemicals since 2015 and first flagged the potential legal action by the Commonwealth in 2024.

Rowland revealed that Defence has already shouldered costs of $1.3 billion as part of a nationwide investigation into and cleanup of the toxic substances, with the bill expected to climb further in the years ahead.

The costs borne by Defence also include $408 million paid to settle lawsuits launched by communities and property owners enveloped by the toxic fallout of the foam.

Rowland said 3M’s misconduct had resulted in substantial costs for the Australian taxpayer.

“This included withholding 3M’s own environmental laboratory testing, which showed there were significant adverse environmental effects associated with the use of 3M firefighting foam, representing that 3M firefighting foam could be safely disposed of, was biodegradable, and not toxic, and there were no significant adverse environmental effects,” Rowland said.

The Australian action comes off the back of a landmark US legal settlement in 2024, in which 3M agreed to pay up to $US12.5 billion ($19 billion) to remove forever chemicals from thousands of water supplies across America.

Environmental campaigner Jon Dee, who leads the Blue Mountains community group STOP PFAS, welcomed the developments.

“Our argument has always been when it comes to compensation of people or compensation for property because of PFAS damage, why are taxpayers paying for a problem that was knowingly caused by 3M?” he said.

Dee believed the lawsuit would bolster the group’s own proposed class action against Sydney Water for the contamination of Blue Mountains drinking water with PFAS.

University of Sydney associate professor Nick Chartres, from the Centre to End Corporate Harm, described the action by the Australian government as long overdue and critical to showing industries they would be held to account for harms caused by their products.

He said internal industry documents showed that 3M knew for decades that the chemicals were toxic and persistent, and withheld internal studies from regulators that would have seen the chemicals banned so it could make billions of dollars in profit.

“It is straight from the tobacco industry playbook,” Chartres said.

“Approximately 100 per cent of Australians over the age of 12 now have these chemicals in their blood, which have been established as carcinogens by world-leading authoritative bodies, and they will likely stay in our blood and the environment for decades to come.”