Page 1843 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
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MR PROWSE: I appeal to you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker.
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not believe that the members are interrupting proceedings, Mr Prowse.
MR PROWSE: All right; I will refer you to standing orders but I will proceed. The point is that if the Minister for Health had any interest in this subject whatsoever he would listen. But, as he has displayed in the past, he has none. I request the Minister for Health to put out a notice to medical practitioners, particularly in the public health area, asking them to look for symptoms associated with the repoisoning of the population. And for this reason I ask again that he put this information out, because the medical profession have not been trained - I emphasise that - in the issue of identification of poisoning due to fluoride. Their training on this issue is minimal. They have been told there are no side effects; therefore they do not seek them out.
So I appeal, on Mr Berry's behalf, to give him time to do the right thing. Here we have an opportunity in this community to be ready for the abreaction results. I think it would be a wonderful exercise to present the findings of those doctors so alerted to the committee of inquiry. Therefore, again I make the point that an extra three weeks will have the effect of giving time for this elimination; we will see the abreaction present itself when the fluoride comes back into the water supply and we should be ready to identify these abreactions. Therefore I appeal to members that there is a logical reason to withhold it for another three weeks. No-one's teeth are going to fall out in that short time. I can assure you they will not. They have their fluoride toothpaste. There will be no effect on the community if you win your applause now because you put it back in. So be it. The point is that I am asking for that extra time for this elimination process. So please give us that much courtesy in allowing an investigation into this. If the Minister would only carry out these wishes of mine and particularly of those members of the public who will react to this, he might gain some applause on this issue as well.
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health) (4.44): Ever willing to demonstrate my concern about public health in the ACT, I rise to speak very briefly on the issue of this amendment. I think the first thing I should say is that it strikes me as only a desperate move to try to delay the introduction of the Bill that the Leader of the Opposition has put before the Assembly today.
Mr Stevenson: Not delay it; stop the whole thing.
MR BERRY: Or stall it, perhaps. I, like Dr Kinloch, believe that the matter of the public debate between Dr Donovan of the AMA and Mr Stevenson need not get in the way of the proper consultation which will proceed as a matter
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