Antifluoride campaigner and local body politician Kane Titchener is celebrating New Zealand First’s call for a referendum to review the move to put decisions over fluoride into the Ministry of Health’s court.
US lawyer Michael Connett, left, with Fluoride Free NZ’s Kane Titchener, before the meeting got underway. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Winston Peters accepted Fluoride Free NZ’s petition – that the House of Representatives stop water fluoridation – last week and on the same day New Zealand First introduced a member’s bill that would repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 and mandate councils to hold binding referenda.
The Act is the legislation which authorised the Director General of Health to mandate the fluoridation of local water supplies – and saw outgoing director general Ashley Bloomfield make orders to a host of councils, including Waipā, which was told to add fluoride to the Cambridge supply.
The district council is abiding by the demand, but Titchener, deputy chair of the Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board has consistently called for councillors to resist.
Titchener hosted a meeting in Cambridge last week where US lawyer Michael Connett, who scored a significant Federal Court case win for anti-fluoride campaigners, spoke to a full Cambridge Town Hall.
In the US a judge, Edward Chen, ruled plaintiffs had proven fluoridation of water at 0.7 mg a litre – the level prescribed in the US and used in New Zealand – “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children”.
A section of the crowd at the Michael Connett Fluoride Free meeting in the Cambridge Town Hall. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
“Everyone who attended that presentation is now up to date with the latest science,” Titchener said. “It just can’t be denied any longer that fluoride is a neurotoxin and should not be added to the water supply. We are calling for a moratorium and a public inquiry.”
Winston Peters said of the party’s bill the only people who would oppose it are “those that oppose democracy” – but there is no indication National MPs would support it.
National made the first move a decade ago to remove fluoridation decisions from local government to district health boards with then associate Health minister Peter Dunne saying water fluoridation was a health-related issue. It was shifted instead to the Director-General of Health in 2021.
Titchener said invites to last week’s meeting went to all district councillors. He said one, Philip Coles attended, as did Cambridge Community Board members Jo Davies-Colley and Andrew Myers. Coles left early.
The US judge ruled that “fluoridation of water at 0.7 mg per litre poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children.” Connett received standing ovations at each of the packed eight public events throughout his New Zealand tour. He spoke to councillors from Whangārei, Kaipara, Far North, Tauranga, Western Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, and Palmerston North. Rotorua District Council have also called for a public inquiry after listening to Michael Connett’s workshop presentation. Whangarei District Council are taking legal action in order to not start fluoridation due to the health concerns from neurotoxicity.
Meanwhile, Winston Peters stepped in to support Whangārei district councillors who are resisting the fluoride mandate this week. “It is chilling that we have got to a point in New Zealand where elected politicians are being threatened with imprisonment just for doing their jobs, standing up for democracy and asking for a vote,” Peters said.
Michael Connett and Kane Titchener at the Fluoride Free
