In 2008 Queensland became the last Australian state to mandate fluoridation. Four years later the Newman LNP government handed the decision back to councils. Since then, the map has steadily changed colour.
Today only 16 of Queensland's 77 councils still add fluoride: the 11 south-east councils on the Seqwater grid, plus Toowoomba, Townsville, Western Downs, Goondiwindi and Isaac. Five or six more have natural fluoride in their bores. The other 55 or so have none.
About 72% of Queenslanders still receive fluoridated water, because the Seqwater grid covers Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast.
The recent votes
- Central Highlands (Emerald) voted on 11 October 2023 to stop at its Emerald, Blackwater, Tieri and Sapphire plants, after fluoridating from 2011.
- Cook Shire (Cooktown) voted 4-3 on 25 February 2025. Fluoridation ended on 28 March 2025, even though the mayor voted to keep it.
- Banana Shire (Biloela) voted in August 2025 to decommission its dosing plants. CEO Tom Upton said they had not run for "four or five years" because the council could not find staff with the required skills.
- Gympie voted 5-3 on 24 September 2025 to stop, after 15 years of fluoridation. Mayor Glen Hartwig said it would save ratepayers $255,000 a year. Dosing ended across all Gympie communities on 17 November 2025. Removal was budgeted at about $100,000.
"If the state wants fluoridation mandated, it should cough it up." Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig
Councillor Allona Lahn said residents should have a choice about what is in their water and that the science is not settled.
Where the parties stand
Premier David Crisafulli and Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie were both members of the government that made the 2012 change. Mr Bleijie said local governments decide on behalf of their residents, "and that's why that position stands".
Opposition Leader Steven Miles has called fluoride "just about the most cost-effective public health intervention" and urged Gympie to reconsider. But Labor held power for almost a decade after 2015 and chose not to re-mandate.
Earlier, Cairns council resolved in December 2024 not to consider reintroducing fluoride, making it the largest urban centre in Australia without it. Mackay voted 6-5 to remove it in September 2016, Gladstone voted to stop in July 2016, and Rockhampton, Bundaberg and the Fraser Coast also no longer add it.
2026: pressure from both directions
- Two petitions were tabled in State Parliament on 10 February 2026: one asking the state to mandate fluoridation, one for "freedom of choice". Health Minister Tim Nicholls responded in March, keeping the decision with councils.
- On 21 July 2026, Toowoomba went the other way, deciding its new Greenmount treatment plant (serving Cambooya, Clifton and Nobby) will fluoridate once commissioned.
- In October 2026 the Australian Dental Association called on the state to take fluoridation back from councils, citing a new UQ study.