THE only politician who attended this week’s fluoride public meeting is angry he was not given a chance to address the crowd of 800 people.
The Democratic Labor Party’s Peter Kavanagh, a Western Victoria upper house MP, said he had been promised the chance to speak at the meeting by organisers.
“Given that I went there on the premise of being asked to speak . . . I was quite disappointed,” Mr Kavanagh said.
Although undecided on whether Warrnambool’s water should be fluoridated, Mr Kavanagh agreed with the Warrnambool Fluoride Action Group that the decision should be made by the community. In Parliament yesterday he asked the Government to respond to the community’s concerns about fluoride, to review the scientific evidence and to halt fluoridation until a referendum was held.
“I have previously written to the premier and health minister but I don’t have replies from them,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“I have also raised the matter with the leader of the Liberal Party in the legislative council, asking if he would consider supporting an inquiry into fluoridation _ he’s been quite non-committal on that.”
If he had been given the opportunity to speak on Monday Mr Kavanagh said he would have thanked everyone who had voted for him at the election.
Action group member Peter Hulin said speakers at the meeting ran overtime.
“We had all intentions of having him speak,” he said.
“It wasn’t our intention to upset Mr Kavanagh because we were delighted he came down.”