Page 257 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 May 1989
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the ACT be held on the question of what form of self-government the people desire, thereby partially righting the wrong of our Federal politicians. Let us clear the air. Let us heal this division within our community which, up until now, has presented an example for all, as one of the most homogeneous communities within Australia.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I now speak to the overwhelming concern we all have for our environment. Another wrong that I request our new Government, via the Minister for Housing and Urban Services, Mrs Grassby, to redress immediately is that of compulsory mass medication of the population by the addition of a chemical to our water supply: fluoride.
Fluoride is a highly toxic, cumulative poison that is causing untold misery and distress to many of our citizens, particularly our senior citizens. The World Health Organisation has reported that studies show 1 per cent of a population that drinks artificially fluoridated water at the rate of one part per million will be adversely affected to the degree that they will seek medical attention or will be hospitalised. This is the situation in the ACT and is to be vehemently deplored. Fifteen countries, six of them European, have now, after many years of artificial fluoridation of their water supplies, ceased this mad act of pollution because the dental benefits did not result from fluoridation, but ill health caused by fluoride poisoning did result.
I might add that, although fluoridation of water supplies in Victoria is compulsory, several large Victorian cities, Geelong included, have not had their water contaminated by this mad act of pollution because the unions have banned the commissioning of already constructed fluoridation plants. The unionists recognise that compulsory, mass medication is a dictatorial act and is therefore abhorrent to the Australian way of life.
I therefore request the Minister to immediately instruct her staff who control the fluoridation plants in the ACT to switch them off - and never to switch them on again without first obtaining a result of a referendum of the people on this matter.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I opened my address by saying that this is indeed an historic occasion in more ways than one and, therefore, to pursue that line of thought, history has been made in that I have been elected by my fellow Assembly members to the position of Speaker. I must convey my overwhelming gratitude to you all for this vote of confidence in me, and I can assure you of my desire to uphold this high office to the best of my ability and with decorum.
The fact that I have come to this Assembly on a no self-government vote will be consciously put aside while I am fulfilling the role of Speaker, and I thereby assure you all that my position will always be apolitical. However,
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