Hastings Water Fluoridation: A Tale told in Headlines
Mark Honeychurch - 15th September 2025
Twelve years ago, back in 2013, I subscribed to the Fluoride Free New Zealand (back then known as Fluoride Action Network New Zealand) newsletter, to keep an eye on what the group was doing. I’ve been happy to see that recently my Gmail account has been treating these newsletters as spam, and I hope that many other people receiving this newsletter also having it going into their spam folders - as there’s so much misinformation and fearmongering in the emails (along with regular begging for money), that it’s best off being left unread.
The newest issue of the newsletter had an update to a recent court case, where it’s been good to see a sensible outcome. Rather than summarising the court case and the judge’s decisions myself, I figured I could let Fluoride Free NZ’s headlines over the past year or more, along with a little context, tell the story for you:
Director General of Health now contacting councils to start fluoridation
July 2nd 2022
_The Director General of Health (DG) is now putting more pressure on the local councils that do not have fluoridation, to give an update of when they are likely to implement fluoridation and how much it is estimated to cost. The DG has sent a letter to Whangarei and Waipa councils and 12 other councils . We have sent an Official Information Act to find out which other councils have been contacted. We will let you know once we find out.
The DG needs to know the estimated cost of fluoridation introduction before if can give a directive to fluoridate. The DG is required, under the Act, to determine a cost-benefit analysis with regards to fluoridation and dental decay. See the Legislation outlined below._
Urgent Action Required in Hastings - Council plans to start fluoridation next week!
April 4th 2024
Hastings District Council is starting fluoridation after having been stopped for eight years. No consultation has taken place and no analysis of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act as they are required to do under the November High Court Ruling.
A protest is planned for this Friday (5 April) at 12 o’clock outside the Council Buildings at 207 Lyndon Road East. Please bring placards and as many family and friends that you can find.
Also, please ring the council 06 871 5000 and email the mayor and councillors.
Legal Action Taken Against Hastings District Council.
April 10th 2024
_Fluoride Free New Zealand (FFNZ), along with New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out for Science (NZDSOS), filed for an Injunction against the Hastings District Council in the Wellington High Court yesterday (9 April 2024).
FFNZ and NZDSOS consider the Hastings District Council’s decision to resume fluoridating Hastings community water supplies to be unlawful, unscientific, undemocratic and a reckless wielding of power against a citizenship that will be forced to consume this toxic industrial byproduct. Hastings District Council had the same options that other councils have taken to wait until the lawfulness of water fluoridation was clarified by the Courts. Hastings District Council has instead decided to force this measure on its community._
Hastings Fluoridation Decision on Trial - Come and Support!
May 13th 2024
_Court Hearing on Thursday.
The big day is coming up this Thursday 16 May at the Wellington High Court. Court starts at 10am although people are meeting from 9am onwards. Please come along to show your support if you possibly can._
We lost the court case against Hastings District Council.
June 15th 2024
_For those of you that don’t already know, the judge ruled on the 24th of May that the fluoridation of Hastings could continue as he deemed the directive to fluoridate to be “valid” even though it was “unlawful”.
Last week the High Court in Wellington heard the case that the Hastings District Council had implemented an unlawful directive to start fluoridation. Yesterday Justice La Hood ruled that the council was allowed to continue because the unlawful directive was still “valid”.
This decision confirms that the High Court decision in November last year that found a Bill of Rights analysis had to be completed before any directives were issued, was meaningless in the absence of a sensible remedy.
The Hastings District Council and the DG (whom the judge invited to the case, not us) are both seeking costs. We are objecting to these costs since the case was taken in the public interest. We will let you know when we hear from the court._
Please help with our legal expenses
December 26th 2024
_As most of you will know, we lost our legal action against the Hastings District Council. Unusually, the court ordered us along with our co-plaintiffs, New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out With Science (NZDSOS), to pay costs. Normally these would be waived because our case was in the public interest. However, this time the judge deemed our groups to be “special interest cases” and ordered costs to be paid to the Hastings District Council (HDC) and to the Attorney General (AG) of $20,000 each.
Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We have raised $3500 towards the costs.
There has now been a change in plan about appealing this decision as our lawyer, Sue Grey, has recommended we agree to pay HDC but appeal the costs awarded to the AG. This is because we believe we have a much better chance of winning against the AG since our case was taken against HDC and it was the court that invited the AG into the case.
Therefore, we are joining with NZDSOS and both groups are now putting this option to the courts - both FFNZ and NZDSOS pay a deposit on the costs awarded to HDC ($20K in total) and set up payment plans to pay the rest, and both groups will appeal the costs awarded to the AG. We presume this will be accepted by the court.
Please help us with these costs. The $3500 raised so far is going directly to pay the $10K we owe to HDC and we hope that we will be successful and not have to pay the other $10K to the Attorney-General. Please put “legal” in the reference if you contribute to this._
We lost Appeal on Costs
September 8th 2025
_Regarding our court case last year against Hastings District Council:
Last year we combined efforts with New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS) to seek an injunction against the Hastings District Council starting fluoridation without any Bill of Rights analysis being completed.
We lost that case as you can read here.
We were ordered to pay costs of $20,000 to Hastings District Council and $20,000 to the Attorney General, leaving FFNZ and NZDSOS having to pay $20,000 each.
Since we did not feel we would win an appeal against Hastings District Council we came to an agreement with them to pay $14,000 in total which has been paid.
We did think we would have a chance at appealing the costs for the Attorney General since we had not taken the case against them and they had been invited into the case by the Solicitor General. Unfortunately, the Appeals court has ruled against us so we will have to pay half of the $20,000 plus a further $9,000 because we had the audacity to appeal the costs._