The Department of Defence is dealing with 41 individual claims for compensation over PFAS contamination.
A number of those are known to be from Katherine.
A class action is already under way through Shine Lawyers on behalf of Katherine residents.
The number of individual claims was revealed yesterday by Assistant Defence Minister David Fawcett who was responding to the Senate Joint Standing Committee report into PFAS contamination which was released on Monday.
Speaking to ABC yesterday, Senator Fawcett said many of the committee’s recommendations talk about the things Government is already doing.
“Part of my task now is to say: what's the gap between what we're doing and what the community and the committee thinks is the stretch goal that we should be achieving in each of those goals.”
Senator Fawcett said the government is still considering the committee’s recommendations and would respond in the future.
He did not give an expected date for the response.
“We are now engaging, both through class actions but also with 41 non-litigated claims - some of those are now underway - dealing with individual cases. So that's been a development since those hearings were conducted,” he told ABC.
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“The care for people is the top priority. But you also need to be aware that there are people who are living in zones right next to airfields who don't want to move.
“There are some who do and Mr Laming in his report talks about the equity trap and the concern and angst that has caused for people. But there are other people who do not actually want to move but they want compensation for nuisance and he highlights again in his report that fact.
“So our preference is to work with people on a case by case basis and the 41 claims that have come in, whilst I can't talk about the details of them, they span a range of concerns raised by people in terms of how PFAS has impacted them and the Commonwealth is looking to work constructively with them.”
“Let’s keep in mind that not one of those 41 compensation cases he refers to has been resolved in over four years, “ Coalition Against PFAS president Lindsay Clout said yesterday.
“That’s why well over 1000 families and businesses in Williamtown, Oakey and Katherine alone have had to take their own Government to court in a process they’ve dragged out for over two years already.”
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