of fluoride to drinking water; unlike other states responsibility for fluoridation lies with the minister for local government rather than the minister for health. the accompanying water fluoridation regulation 2008 listed 134 drinking water supplies that were to be fluoridated by 31 december 2012. of the drinking water supplies listed in the regulation, 32 comprised the seq water grid located in southeast queensland. the fluoridation of these supplies by the end of 2009 accounted for the largest increase in people currently receiving fluoridated water in queensland (approximately 2.6 million people in 2006 or 68% of the queensland population). on 29 november 2012 the queensland parliament, with a liberal national party government, reversed the previous labor government's mandate requiring certain public potable water supplies to add fluoride to the water. annastacia palaszczuk, current premier of queensland (as at 2021) attacked the decision of the government at that time but later stated in 2016 that "there is no present intention of reversing the 2012 decision." this decision is seen as a regional political issue taking precedence over the government's positive stance on fluoridation. as a consequence of these changes local councils in queensland have the choice to add fluoride to drinking water supplies, similar to the conditions in place under the previous legislation. five local council areas have naturally occurring fluoride in their water supplies: bulloo shire, diamantina shire, kowanyama aboriginal shire, mckinlay shire and quilpie shire. both birdsville in the dimantina shire and julia creek in the mckinlay shire have naturally occurring fluoride level that exceed safe levels. several areas of queensland, generally in areas above the great artesian basin, are known to have naturally occurring fluoride present in their drinking water, a characteristic that has been studied since the late 1920s. in summary, of the 77 local councils in queensland, five have naturally high levels of fluoride, 26 fluoridate some or all of their water and the remainder do not fluoridate their water. in south east queensland water is supplied to a number of council areas by seq water who continue to fluoridate their water. since november 2012 the major regional centers of cairns, mackay, rockhamption, gladstone and numerous other councils have stopped fluoridation of their water. after mackay shire council decided to cease fluoridation of their water supply, mayor greg williamson stated "... as a local council, public health is not our domain. we shouldn't be in this situation, but we are, so we made a decision." while councilor manning from the cairns shire council stated "“it is also clear that fluoride is a state issue and if you believe that children in this state have poorer oral health than others, surely it’s time for queensland health to take responsibility for this issue as it does for other public health matters."