Page 1827 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
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confidence? You are not doing the party justice, and it is a sad day to see a reneging - in this circumstance, due to pressure.
Surely you have seen the results of the public opinion poll. Fifty per cent of the people out there were supportive of your move; in fact, more so, because you are the only party leader who allowed a conscience vote. You were applauded for that action, and now what has happened? You are pulling your party down because you are retracting that situation - - -
Mr Kaine: I will be applauded again tomorrow for being sensible.
MR PROWSE: You will be by the Labor press, I can assure you, because they are applauding your actions. It is a wonderful statement, "You have taken it away". You have taken the difficult duty that they had to perform and that is wonderful. They are applauding you high and low in this community. The Labor Party and the Chief Minister think you are wonderful, and it is a sad day.
I come back to the Chief Minister's statement when she made comments that it was one-sided information that was presented to this Assembly during the period of non-consultation. I cannot understand the logic of that statement. One minute she tells us we have one-sided consultation and the next she says there was none. The point is that debate was able to be carried out if the Government so desired, and that is the problem. Government members did not so desire because they did not understand the importance of this Bill. They thought it was something they could quickly rally around with numbers and push aside. That is not the fact. They misjudged the issue.
I will make another statement, too. The Chief Minister asked why we went ahead when we knew that an NHMRC investigation into Dr Diesendorf's report was imminent. We did not know that the NHMRC was going to investigate Diesendorf's report. In fact it may not have done so, had it not been for the vote of this Assembly. And there is the truth of the matter. So to say that we were hasty in pre-empting the results of the NHMRC report is absolute rubbish. No-one knew. They did not make this common knowledge that they were going to investigate the report.
I look to Mr Humphries' statement. He is telling us that we cannot upset the status quo. That is exactly what this Bill is going to do. You cannot go back in time. It is a situation of status quo of two weeks. There is no logic in the statement. As a member trained in the law, you well know that under the law you are now perpetrating fluoridation of the public in this community, without consultation and against the will of a number of them. So on this Assembly will fall the legal responsibility for any action taken against this house by people who do not want to be fluoridated.
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