Page 568 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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Mr Humphries: It can be. Call it on next week if you want to.
MR STEVENSON: If, as the Health Minister says, it can be brought on next week, why make it 31 August?
Mr Humphries: Because we did not allow enough time last time.
MR STEVENSON: Why not give it two months maximum?
Mr Humphries: Because we might need more than two months. Your view might not be shared by everybody else.
MR STEVENSON: Yes, we understand. The intention is not to bring it on in the immediate future, I dare say. The intention is to put it off for as long as possible.
Mr Humphries: Do you want it on in the next week or the next two weeks?
MR STEVENSON: I want it on within two months - absolutely. That will give people an opportunity to read the book and the members in the Assembly an opportunity to discuss the matter. While ever we are putting this matter off, it allows more people to suffer adverse health effects.
I do not want to talk particularly about those many adverse health effects that are reported in the major part of the report; I want to talk about the compulsion. I have spoken to a number of people who are for fluoride; they think it is a good idea. I ask them the question: Why should every man, woman and child - and we could include animals and plants if we wanted to - be compelled to take sodium fluoride on a daily basis? This is regardless of whether they have any teeth, regardless of their general state of health, regardless of the fact that they have not had a medical examination to determine whether or not this is a drug that is going to benefit them. There is absolutely no understanding, in relation to each person forced to take this drug, of what other drugs they are taking.
Indeed, next to no research has been done in Australia, or in the rest of the world, on the effects that combinations of drugs can have on a person's health. Sodium silico-fluoride mixed with other drugs is an unknown quantity. It is a dangerous possibility that no-one in this Assembly can competently address because the research has not been done. Your Health Rights mentions that the New South Wales Department of Health has developed the following list of patients' rights:
Before any treatment ... is carried out, the doctor ... should give you a clear explanation ... any risks associated ... should also be explained. This explanation should include an outline of any after-effects, side-effects or adverse outcomes.
This has not been done by this Assembly. It goes on:
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