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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3581 ..
MR CORNWELL (continuing):
Neither do I see a problem, Mr Speaker, in relation to organisations and parents who may have need of spray cans, or in relation to under-age people who may have some need of spray cans. I do not for a moment think that there are many people out there who are willing to spray paint granny's chair, but I do accept that there are some people who are happy to go out and to put up murals and such like in bus shelters or perhaps on walls, through schools and sometimes through youth organisations. I think some people call it street art. I see no problem with this and, again, the introduction of this restriction will not prevent such people producing this street art. All it will require is that an adult purchases the spray cans. That I do not see as a great inconvenience.
Certainly, however, the move will do something to minimise the amount of graffiti that is being placed on public and private buildings, and everything else for that matter, in the ACT. It will further be in conformity with New South Wales and the laws that it introduced on 1 September. I believe that, if we do not do this, we will end up an island in the middle of New South Wales. We will simply become a purchasing area for under-age border hoppers who wish to use these spray cans in the state of New South Wales.
It seems to me a sensible and, may I say, Mr Speaker, long-overdue amendment and I commend the legislation to the house.
Debate (on motion by Mr Stanhope ) adjourned to the next sitting.
Dangerous Goods Legislation Amendment Bill 2003
Debate resumed from 20 August 2003, on motion by Mr Pratt:That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (10.58): The government will not be supporting this bill today for a number of reasons, not the least of them the fact that this matter was the subject of extensive research by the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs when it tabled its report last year. That report called for a total rewrite of the legislation on fireworks and made 16 recommendations.
The bill that is before us today is seeking to ban the sale of fireworks to members of the public and this was something that, my understanding is, the committee looked at quite extensively and about which it did not make a recommendation. This is just a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to some of the issues connected with this June long weekend.
Certainly, the illegal use or sale of fireworks is something the government takes very seriously. We have been doing quite a lot of work on how to regulate this area of the Dangerous Goods Act and make a framework that is as safe as possible, within which members of the public can enjoy the use of fireworks for a certain time during the year. And that certainly tightens the regulations further than they are currently.
A couple of weeks ago, I made some additional comments about this, about what the government was going to do. I made some comments about the fact that, in the legislation we want to introduce in the October sittings, we will be looking to ban the
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