Page 898 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
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The Minister said in her presentation speech, as we call it here:
The registrar will be able to issue permits so that pesticides may be used in emergencies or for research.
There appears to be some conflict here between what she said in that speech and my understanding of the way the Bill will operate. A further complication came with the report in the Canberra Times on 1 July. In that report the author quotes the Minister as saying:
The ACT is the only place in Australia where chemicals like DDT, Chlordane and Dieldrin are allowed...This Bill will bring the ACT into line with the States and remove the risks to our community.
I understand that organochlorides are still used in New South Wales to control termites. I further understand that there are no serious alternatives to the use of organochlorides for termite control and that the so-called alternatives simply do not provide adequate protection against termites. I will quote later from a report that brings that point home. I am sure the Minister, in the paper on that subject, was confusing the issue of controlling pest control companies with the issue of controlling pesticides themselves, and there is a difference.
I have consulted with the Australian Environmental Pests Managers Association on this legislation. That apparently is more than the Minister has done, if her answer on 5 July to a question from Mrs Nolan is any indication. The association has informed me that it is basically happy with the Bill. Therefore, so am I. The Bill reflects, more or less, the New South Wales Pesticides and Allied Chemicals Act of 1978, which appears to be working satisfactorily. However, the association has a concern that the ACT could bring in a blanket ban on organochloride pesticides. This, as I have pointed out, would lead to an unworkable situation, particularly in the case of termite attack.
There was a workshop conducted by the National Health and Medical Research Council on 8 March this year. I am not sure what I was doing, but I do not think any of us were terribly interested in anything other than sleep at that time of the year. Various issues relating to the use of termiticides in Australia were discussed at the workshop, and a number of papers were presented, one by a Mr R. Blackmore of a firm called Velsicol Australia. He pointed out that the use of new alternative termiticides in the USA had led to a six-fold increase in call-backs following application and presumably indications of a control failure. Factors such as soil type formulation, building debris and spillage can significantly influence the rate of such failure.
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