WHEN news broke late last month that the Williamtown PFAS contamination class action had been settled, the immediate response was euphoric.
Williamtown and Surrounds Residents' Action Group president Caine Gorfine said he felt "vindicated" and "fantastic" about the settlement. "It was never going to be a perfect solution," he said, but it would "go a hell of a long way to giving people some options". But now, with the size of the settlement known, individual payments look as though they'll be smaller than many might have hoped. The overall settlement is $212.5 million to cover "economic loss" claimed from Defence use of fire-fighting foam at three properties - Williamtown RAAF ($86 million), Tindal RAAF at Katherine in the Northern Territory ($92.5 million), and the Oakey Army Aviation Centre near the Darling Downs, Queensland, town of the same name ($34 million).
Individually, this equates to $172,000 for 500 claimants at Williamtown, $75,555 for 450 people at Oakey and $37,000 for 2500 residents of Katherine. In this light, Williamtown residents have fared the best, but the average figures look somewhat modest beside the damage that the PFAS controversy has done to Red Zone property prices.
Additionally, legal fees will take a substantial slice of the payout, as we noted when the settlement was announced. The three PFAS cases were paid for by a third-party litigation funder, IMF Bentham. A 2019 UK report on class actions globally found such firms typically earned between 20 per cent and 45 per cent of settlement proceeds in Australian cases. In 2017-18, the median commission rate in Federal Court cases (such as these) was 30 per cent.
At the same time, it is worth remembering the impact that class actions are having in this country, forcing large corporations, especially, to the bargaining table in ways that aggrieved individuals are rarely able to. Wage underpayment is an obvious example. Given that the Commonwealth settled without admitting liability, and given that the "no further claims" clauses in the settlements pertain only to property and other economic damage and not to "personal injury" (health, in other words) then the settlement as struck is still a lot better than nothing. Paradise may not yet be regained, but the money offered is a practical, if incomplete, salve for the damage done.
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