E-Petition

The Petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that e-Petition 4361-25 in effect calls for amendment or removal of Clause 7 of the Water Fluoridation Act 2008 and simply mandate that all Queensland residents have their water supply fluoridated.

While no doubt sincerely well intentioned, such a change would neglect the important principle of freedom of choice for fellow adults who are quite capable of making considered judgements about such matters for themselves and their dependents - both familial and community, and that there are almost always means available to ensure that those on the minority side of the decision are not put to great disadvantage or inconvenience.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to retain Clause 7 of the Act but with amendments to ensure that any decision by a local government can be overruled by the community themselves (in either case, supply of fluoridated water supply or non fluoridated water). 

The mechanism by which the local government decision can be overruled could be similar to that suggested in e-Petition 4352-25 (with perhaps some adjustment in the voter to representative ratio based on the particular local government context and the length of time since the fluoridation / non fluoridation decision was made).