We responded to the member on 15 April 2025. 

We advised the member that section 37A(5) of the Auditor-General Act 2009 prevents the Auditor-General from questioning the merits of policy objectives of local government decisions. We consider a council decision on water fluoridation to be a policy decision under s.37A(5).

QAO could consider conducting an audit assessing whether the policy objectives of decisions made by local governments on water fluoridation were being achieved efficiently, effectively and economically.

However, conducting an audit of this nature would likely require QAO to compare differences between water fluoridation and non-fluoridation. This would pose several challenges including:

• it may take several years before QAO could assess the actual outcomes from the implementation of the decisions made by local governments
• there is a significant risk that any audit is perceived as the Auditor-General commenting on the merits of the objectives of policy decisions made by respective local governments i.e. by comparing the alternate policies.

On this basis, we do not intend to conduct an audit of the decisions made by councils on water fluoridation. 

Further information on our ability to audit government policy is available in our factsheet.