Page 1612 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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I now join with all those in this Assembly who wish such an investigation to take place, and here I do link hands across the chamber. I wish to be together both with those who wanted it to take place while fluoride was in the water, improperly though that was, and those who believed it to be more appropriate and much more effective to undertake that when there was no fluoride in the water. I have consulted with colleagues on the Social Policy Committee on this matter.
Finally, I wish to stress that from my point of view there was no hidden political agenda over the question of fluoride. We made that very clear in our discussions with the various teams that approached us. We read the material. We debated this in January-February. It is in our policy. There is nothing new about it, and I wish to say that I do not want to see this matter turned into some kind of political football.
Mr Whalan: Hector, you are a comedian. You missed your career, you missed your vocation. You should have been a comedian instead of an academic.
Mr Jensen: Mr Speaker, on a point of order, I seek that you ask the Deputy Chief Minister to withdraw that offensive statement from the record.
MR SPEAKER: With the furore, I did not hear the words spoken. Please refrain in future, Deputy Chief Minister. Please proceed, Dr Kinloch.
DR KINLOCH: I want to make the very simple point, that I was elected to this Assembly and I thank the people of Canberra who did it. I was not elected to play political games. I was elected to look at particular issues, and I have joined very cordially with Mr Whalan on another issue which I think we battled through very successfully together. I ask that we look at this issue in its own terms, on its own merits, not in terms of political advantage or political disadvantage; I could not care about that. I wish to stress that from my point of view there was no hidden political agenda over the question of fluoride yesterday and there is no hidden political agenda in this motion today. I resent all such imputations. I want to do what is best for the inhabitants of the ACT and also, I believe, for our friends and neighbours in Queanbeyan.
MR WOOD (12.07): Dr Kinloch is proposing that we give some retrospective consideration to a decision that is already taken. May I remind you that yesterday the Social Policy Committee voted on this issue. It voted four to one against fluoride. That is the reality of the situation. What are we going to do? Are we going to go through months and months of inquiry and come back for a four to one vote again? What is the purpose of it? I have not heard it expressed. Please tell me. Or is the purpose of this to be a salve to the conscience, to appease perhaps the souls,
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