Mr BALCH - 2000-10-10
Can you advise members what action the Northern Territory government is taking to ensure the annual Territory fireworks day celebrations continue to be enjoyed by all Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, members would be fully aware that many thousands of Territorians do enjoy the fireworks night on Territory Day. It has been a part of that celebration for a long time and will continue to be under this CLP government.
In recent years though, those fireworks celebrations have been reviewed, both from a safety aspect and also from a licensing aspect, as far as retailers and wholesalers go and the whole supply chain of those fireworks go. I can report today that my Office of Consumer Affairs has tightened the controls in respect of that in relating to what kind of fireworks can be sold and which wholesalers can conduct that business.
The work, obviously, has been carried out in conjunction with the police and certainly with Fire and Emergency Service personnel, and I would like to thank them for their work.
Recent improvements include, in this last year, the exception of more than two tonnes of unsafe product or banned product and certainly a lot of untested product as well. We also this year banned the roadside wholesalers from occurring and fireworks must be sold now through retailers, not directly from the wholesalers therefore reducing the incidence of any illegal sales taking place.
There has also been a lot of work done on better security for on-premise storage of fireworks and the amount of goods that can be kept on-premise at any one time.
I would say with that review that next year we will see improved education campaigns going on; we will see revised tests of the requirements for the kinds of goods that can come into the Northern Territory, certainly nationwide checks on what has been imported and also what can be licensed and who can be licensed here in the Northern Territory as far as goods and wholesalers go for the distribution of those goods. We have been enlisting the help of the Australian Customs to further monitor the control of imports as well.
All of those measures are obviously designed to ensure maximum levels of safety to the public and cutting down on any injuries and certainly any spot fires that may occur in the future. Through that proactive work of my department Territorians can continue to enjoy fireworks for many, many years to come when we celebrate Territory day.
Mr PALMER (Leader of Government Business): Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, members would be fully aware that many thousands of Territorians do enjoy the fireworks night on Territory Day. It has been a part of that celebration for a long time and will continue to be under this CLP government.
In recent years though, those fireworks celebrations have been reviewed, both from a safety aspect and also from a licensing aspect, as far as retailers and wholesalers go and the whole supply chain of those fireworks go. I can report today that my Office of Consumer Affairs has tightened the controls in respect of that in relating to what kind of fireworks can be sold and which wholesalers can conduct that business.
The work, obviously, has been carried out in conjunction with the police and certainly with Fire and Emergency Service personnel, and I would like to thank them for their work.
Recent improvements include, in this last year, the exception of more than two tonnes of unsafe product or banned product and certainly a lot of untested product as well. We also this year banned the roadside wholesalers from occurring and fireworks must be sold now through retailers, not directly from the wholesalers therefore reducing the incidence of any illegal sales taking place.
There has also been a lot of work done on better security for on-premise storage of fireworks and the amount of goods that can be kept on-premise at any one time.
I would say with that review that next year we will see improved education campaigns going on; we will see revised tests of the requirements for the kinds of goods that can come into the Northern Territory, certainly nationwide checks on what has been imported and also what can be licensed and who can be licensed here in the Northern Territory as far as goods and wholesalers go for the distribution of those goods. We have been enlisting the help of the Australian Customs to further monitor the control of imports as well.
All of those measures are obviously designed to ensure maximum levels of safety to the public and cutting down on any injuries and certainly any spot fires that may occur in the future. Through that proactive work of my department Territorians can continue to enjoy fireworks for many, many years to come when we celebrate Territory day.
Mr PALMER (Leader of Government Business): Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016