Page 5293 - Week 14 - Thursday, 19 November 2009
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addition, where Regulatory Services would normally receive one complaint of a fire being started by fireworks, the previous two seasons respectively saw 14 and 17 fires started that were suspected of being caused by fireworks.
Mrs Dunne spoke around the surveys and community consultation that were done over 2007-08. Again, earlier work that was done with community consultation did bring around further regulatory changes in relation to the use of consumer fireworks and the regime which regulates it, which I believe implemented the strictest controls in place on the sale and use of these products. However, at the end of the day, whilst you feed in community consultation and community feedback, there are other factors which governments and individuals need to consider when they are looking at a change like this. It is about issues around public safety, animal welfare and senseless property damage, and it is about when we draw the line. Do we wait till someone is seriously injured? Do we wait until presentations at the emergency department hit 50 before we start saying, “Well, this is no longer acceptable.”? They are the issues the government considered and debated before we took the action that we have taken.
With respect to the Liberals’ position on this, I am absolutely unclear about why they have backflipped on their position. I do not think that anything has changed from when Mr Pratt brought in legislation that sought to ban fireworks. We opposed it at that time. We opposed it because we felt there was more room to move in terms of the regulatory regime. We tightened up that regulatory regime. We did oppose the ban at that point in time.
Since 2003, the Liberals have had a position to ban fireworks. It has been regularly documented through Mr Pratt’s releases and through quotes from Mr Stefaniak. There is a classic from Mr Smyth:
Banning things is something we should avoid until we get to the stage where, because there has not been a response, it is the sensible and reasonable thing to do.
Mr Doszpot said:
I stand strong with the policy of the Canberra Liberals on this issue that the retail sale of shop-good fireworks should be banned in the ACT.
That position has been held by the Liberals since 2003. The situation has got worse—more complaints, more property damage. The Liberals backflip and change their position. I just cannot see why they have done it, when they have taken such a strong view on this in the past. The situation has not improved under the regulatory regime.
When those things happened, the response from this government was to review the current situation, the issues in the community. Every June long weekend we go through a tortuous review of how many complaints were received, how many people attended A&E and what property damage was done. We go through this review every year. It is not getting better; it is getting worse. That is why the government has changed its position on fireworks. It is why we are seeking to ban them and why we will not be supporting the disallowance motion brought forward by Mrs Dunne.
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