Page 902 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
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controls over them if the environment is to be protected. By enforcing these controls, this Government would be able to remove the potential danger to public health and the environment.
I will now go to a point raised by the previous speaker in relation to the users of these pesticides. The Act will not directly control the commercial application of pesticides by pest control operators; that is clearly not the case. It talks about storage, and those sorts of things, but it does not talk about the application of the pesticides.
The direct control will be covered by separate legislation, which will be administered under my portfolio and ACT Community Services and Health. This Act, this legislation which I have referred to under the ACT Community and Health Service, will affect the way in which pest control operators function. Those operators will only be able to use registered pesticides, the use of which will have to be strictly in accordance with the approval label or the conditions endorsed on any restricted permit.
I think members would agree that the implementation of strict legislation of that order would ensure that there were no unsafe practices. One would be where an untrained or perhaps unqualified operator sprayed very dangerous chemicals in windy conditions, having no regard to passers-by and to the environment generally.
The storage of pesticides will only be approved under the legislation before the Assembly in approved facilities. This will mean that commercial quantities will not be stored in residential areas. I think that is a very important issue, because residential garages can become cluttered with all sorts of nasty chemicals, pesticides and garden materials, which can be a hazard over a long period.
My former employ, which Mr Collaery assures me was better paid than that of the legal profession, put me in a situation, at times, where I was exposed to these sorts of pesticides.
I can assure the Assembly that even though it was alleged to be highly paid, at those times the payment did not seem enough. In any event, the ad hoc storage of pesticides and dangerous chemicals in household garages is an area of concern. This legislation will tidy up that aspect.
The Act will also require that the disposal of surplus pesticides and used containers be carried out in an approved manner which is environmentally safe. I think that deals with the question the previous speaker raised during his speech. The Act does require the safe disposal of pesticides and used containers in an environmentally safe way.
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