IN an article a year ago in The Border Mail about fluoride being added to Corowa’s water supply, Nigel Sutton for the Corowa Shire Council said: “It was a state policy that this happen but, ultimately, it was a decision for the community and we moved to implement it.”

Pity the “it’s state policy” and “implementing community decisions” aren’t true.

State policy, as seen in the NSW State Parliament in February this year, saw a bill forcing councils to add fluoride defeated.

It is, and always has been, up to councils and not state policy.

The decision of the community in 1998 was not to fluoridate, so why has Corowa now got fluoride?

How is the community decision really being implemented today? And why?

Mulwala has its own water supply and we are entitled to have a say on our drinking water.

The state government has given us this right to choose.

The NSW Local Government Act 1993 — Section 7 sub clause (c) — “The purpose of local government is to encourage and assist the effective participation of the local community in the affairs of local government.”

The community of Mulwala calls on Corowa Shire, “to conduct an immediate resident meeting to decide on the fluoride question and abide by the decision, or cease works until a meeting can held and a vote taken before fluoride is added”.

The NSW government allows any council to renege on the addition of fluoride up until it is added.

— P.P. O’CONNOR,

Mulwala Heights

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