Page 1505 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Prowse: No.
MR WOOD: Well, like you, I certainly do not feel the need to be so inoculated. But mass medication is an accepted fact of life in preserving our health and certainly the health of the children who are in our care. Mr Deputy Speaker, the evidence is clear that fluoride is for the public good. As an Assembly, as a responsible group looking after the interests of Canberra, we ought to sustain that and therefore we ought to reject this Bill.
MR DUBY (11.45): Mr Deputy Speaker, the issue that we are debating today is really a simple one, and that is that of freedom of choice. I do not intend to get myself involved in the pros and cons of whether fluoride is a good preventive measure against dental caries or whether it is not. The problem and the issue that we should be looking at is whether it is appropriate that compulsory medication of some kind should be applied to the whole population for something which is certainly not a life-threatening situation.
We all accept the right of the state to interfere in our daily lives - for example, with the imposition of seat belt laws, et cetera. But no-one has ever been killed by putting a seat belt on or wearing a motorcycle helmet. No-one has ever received injury from those. The fact is that there are some members of the population who do suffer adverse effects from the ingestion of fluoride in drinking water. I suppose it boils down to whether we, as the majority, have the right to impose upon those poor folk something of that kind. There is no doubt that some people do suffer bad effects from fluoride. I think that has been proven without doubt. What therefore needs to be done is, instead of having the fluoride compulsorily placed into the drinking water, people should have the freedom of choice to determine whether they and their children are to receive a dose of it.
To that end, at the end of this debate when I am sure the fluoride will have been removed from the drinking water of Canberra, I will look forward to the Minister for Community Services and Health taking steps to make available to those folk in the Canberra community who wish still to continue the ingestion of fluoride for themselves and their children fluoride tablets or fluoride rinses. Whatever the method of ingestion of the stuff, it should be freely made available to all who ask at health and medical centres. I would like to make sure that at the end of the day that is the situation which exists in the ACT so that those who wish to partake of what some people fervently believe is a great preventive measure against dental decay and caries can continue to do so, but that those who suffer ill effects or those who feel that they do not wish to partake in the ingestion of a toxic substance do not have to.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .