By ALENA HIGGINS
SURVEY statistics used to mandate compulsory state-wide water fluoridation are being brandished to convince Southern Downs Regional Council to listen to the majority of its survey respondents.
However, it must be noted less than 50 per cent of those polled had failed to return the questionnaire in the mid-October survey to ratepayers.
The survey asked if they wanted the practice discontinued, having previously agreed in June to stop adding fluoride to the region’s water supplies if more than 50 per cent of returns indicated that was their preference.
However, only 26.9 per cent across the district responded, according to council’s November business paper.
In Stanthorpe, 31.6 per cent responded, while only 25.2 per cent of the combined Warwick, Allora and Yangan water customers sent their surveys back.
Markedly, out of those responded, 70 per cent in Stanthorpe and 64 per cent in Warwick wanted water fluoridation stopped.
Chairman of SOS the voice of Ratepayers and Residents of Southern Downs Council Bob Johnson said though council might claim the figure was not enough, the fact that two thirds of respondents wanted the practice discontinued “cannot be ignored”.
“Anyone with a smidgen of common sense and an understanding of people would know that a 27 per cent return in a non compulsory survey is incredibly large,” Mr Johnson said.
Co-founder of Queenslanders for Safe Drinking Water Merilyn Haines said the Queensland Government routinely surveyed a small number of adults in its water fluoridation surveys which were then used to represent the sentiments of the whole state.
Ms Haines placed the current survey in the context of previous one. She said the Queensland Government surveyed just 3000 Queenslanders in late 2004 to represent all four million Queensland residents, showing a 60.3 per cent support for fluoridation. In 2007, she said, the former Premier Anna Bligh used this to force fluoridation on all of Queensland.
In this light, she said, the Southern Downs survey should be very significant when 2404 Southern Downs households participated in the survey that was to represent 8939 Southern Downs fluoridated water connections.
“It would be a ridiculous situation if council paid $10,000 to do a survey – had very clear results and then tried to ignore the results,” Ms Haines said.
Councillors were expected to discuss the survey results yesterday during council’s general meeting in Stanthorpe where they were being recommended to consider the survey invalid.
