Thursday, 27 December 2012
Monday, 10 December 2012
Newman Government last week handed councils the power to decide whether fluoride was added to water.
EDUCATION Minister John-Paul Langbroek has slapped down the LNP backbencher leading a party room push to have fluoride removed from drinking water.
Mr Langbroek yesterday suggested backbencher Jason Woodforth's time would be better spent shoring up his hold on the marginal electorate of Nudgee than publicly pushing his view that the use of fluoride was "mass medicating people" with a "brain-altering poison".
Those views were expressed in The Courier-Mail yesterday along with a claim by Mr Woodforth that he had the backing of 31 LNP MPs for a rethink on the former government's move in 2007 to add fluoride to water supplies in Queensland.
Mr Woodforth wants water supplies fluoride-free by March.
The Newman Government last week handed councils the power to decide whether fluoride was added to water.
The southeast Queensland Council of Mayors has decided that councils should conduct community consultations to gauge public opinion on whether fluoride should be withdrawn from their water supplies.
A 2007 Galaxy Poll for The Courier-Mail found 62 per cent of Queenslanders wanted fluoride while 29 per cent were opposed.
The Education Minister - a former dentist - yesterday denied the claims that more than one-third of the LNP party room wanted the fluoride rethink, and said the anti-fluoride push would not influence government policy or party-room unity.
"He (Mr Woodforth) can express his views in the party room as he obviously has but he should be focusing on his own seat - it's a marginal seat," Mr Langbroek said.
But Mr Woodforth said: "I'm working for my electorate every day. But I will always, even in my sleep, promote better health for the community."
The state's chief health officer Jeannette Young said: "Queensland Health recognises the benefits to the oral health of the community that fluoridation provides. Fluoride at the level used in Queensland to fluoridate the drinking water supply is safe."
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Alex Markwell said Mr Woodforth's comments were "irresponsible".
"This is safe and effective and has proven so throughout Australia," Dr Markwell said."It is concerning that the views of a minority are so well promoted because it does frighten people."
Should one council opt-out and other councils continue fluoridating supplies, the cost of delivering water to that area would skyrocket as it would require supplies to be de-fluoridated.
SEQWater spokesman Mike Foster said it would assess what was practical and the costs involved if and when it received council request.
A lack of dentists in areas outside of major cities will be a key factor for many regions.
Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown said while some were fiercely opposed to fluoridating town water supplies, the area also suffered from a lack of dentists and oral health problems.
Biometric data used for facial recognition given the ok for Australian citizens
BIOMETRIC facial scans taken for passports, driver's licences or nightclub entry can now be stored in police and spy agency databases, under changes to Australia's privacy laws.
The Gillard Government's new privacy legislation has removed the ban on biometric data being handed to crime-fighting agencies.
Officials say the move could be of immense benefit in fighting crime, but privacy lobbyists liken it to a "Big Brother" development.
The Attorney-General's Department yesterday revealed police would be able to ask private companies - including shops, pubs and clubs - to hand over patrons' facial scans.
"These changes will allow, for example, a pub to pass on to police a face scan of someone involved in a glassing attack," a spokeswoman said.
"Or, police could ask a government agency to help them identify an alleged murderer through matching an image obtained via CCTV (closed circuit television) with client photos."
The spokeswoman said the Privacy Act would not compel any company or government agency to hand over biometric data to law enforcement bodies.
Biometric data has now been reclassified as "sensitive data", meaning government agencies must apply stronger privacy safeguards.
"Information can only be shared with law enforcement agencies in strictly limited circumstances with increased privacy protections," the spokeswoman said.
The power for police to store biometric data that was originally provided for a passport or driver's licence is buried within 290 pages of explanatory memoranda for the legislative amendments, passed during the Parliament's final sitting week this year.
The document explains that the federal information commissioner will draw up guidelines for the transfer of biometric data to crime-fighting agencies.
It cites a "practical example" of the change as "the automatic provision of biometric information and templates by a non-enforcement agency into a database operated by an enforcement body".
"This is currently a gap in the enforcement-related activity exception in the Privacy Act that prevents this increasing activity from occurring,'' it says.
"The privacy safeguard for this new proposal is that the activity in question would be subject to ongoing oversight by the Information Commissioner through guidelines."
Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman yesterday blasted the changes as a "Big Brother" invasion of privacy.
He said law enforcement agencies must not be handed biometric data automatically, but they should have to obtain a warrant.
"This is increasing law enforcement agencies' access to data without judicial supervision," he said.
"(This type of scan) is something you never thought - let alone consented - would end up in a police database.
"Databases can be misused, and not just in totalitarian countries.''
Mr O'Gorman said "wishy-washy" guidelines drawn up by the Information Commissioner "will make you feel good, but they're just useless".
"We need privacy cops out there investigating breaches,'' he said.
The new legislation will take force in 15 months' time, to give government agencies and private companies time to comply.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Immigration Department already use biometric facial scans - a digital scan that shows a person's facial contours - stored on a microchip in passports.
And some banks are considering introducing biometric voice recognition data on ATMs.
Biometric scans are also growing popular with pubs and clubs to identify and screen patrons.
Four states are using biometric facial-recognition technology in new licences.
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