Page 1798 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
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A vote for one of the motley assortment of independents was a way of expressing that resentment.
And finally:
Yes, laugh all you like about the Canberra experience, where eight weeks of debate has still not resolved the question of whether we should have big or small garbage bins.
So again there is the connection between the time spent on the garbage debate and - - -
Mr Moore: Are you saying that the matter should go to a committee or that it should not?
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Moore, please address your remarks through the Chair.
MR WHALAN: Your people voted to deny it going to the committee, you voted against it going to a committee, so let us get it quite clear. On 3 October, the Daily News again holds up to ridicule one of the great parties in this Assembly. It says:
The ACT Liberals, who have never opposed fluoride use in water, apparently supported the Bill for no other reason than political expediency. Their Federal counterparts have condemned the move with the Opposition Health spokesman, Peter Shack, saying the benefits of fluoride are proved in Australia.
And, of course, the local press did not spare us either. The Canberra Times on 4 October had the heading, "Collaery red faced on fluoride". That article discusses the leader of the Residents Rally and says:
Bernard Collaery said yesterday that as a lawyer he was more embarrassed than anyone in the Assembly over the fluoride controversy, "As a senior lawyer the buck stops with me". Mr Collaery said the Residents Rally had a legal review sub-committee made up of four lawyers including himself. He did not know why the committee had not scrutinised the Bill.
Again elements within the Assembly were being held up to ridicule because of the inadequacies of the legislation rather than the inappropriateness of the whole concept of removing the fluoride from the water. The Canberra Times of 7 October highlighted the very proper concern of the Queanbeyan City Council. I quote from the Queanbeyan Mayor, Dr David Madew, who was our kind host last week at a function. The paper quotes him as saying, "But we use the same water and we would like to be consulted". Again, the consultation process which was denied the entire community was there.
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