By ALENA HIGGINS
TWO public information sessions on water fluoridation have been set down for early next month, but they have already been shrouded in controversy.
Queensland Health and Queenslanders for Safe Drinking Water will each have half an hour to state their respective case and 30 minutes to answer question at Stanthorpe Civic Centre on 8 October and Warwick Town Hall on 9 October, ahead of the council’s fluoridation survey.
But Queenslanders for Safe Drinking Water president Merilyn Haines said while she was happy Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) had followed through with its resolution to provide the venues free of charge, she was “intrigued” by the early, 5.30pm start.
To make matters worse, Ms Haines said her request to alternate the pre-determined order of address for “fairness and equity”, was rejected by council CEO Andrew Roach without explanation.
She contends Queensland Health, which will champion the health benefits of water fluoridation, has “a natural advantage” as second speaker at both sessions and a real one, with people arriving late from work potentially missing out on pertinent points of the anti-fluoride argument.
The council has agreed to discontinue fluoridation if more than 50 per cent of survey respondents want the practice stopped.
The survey is expected to be sent to every Warwick and Stanthorpe Water Treatment Plan water connection ratepayer in mid-October along with the next issue of water rates.
The decision to allow the information sessions to occur was only narrowly agreed to, five votes to four, after mayor Peter Blundell and councillors Denise Ingram, Jo McNally and Neil Meiklejohn voted against the motion at the council’s general meeting in July.
The sessions are expected to conclude at 7pm.
