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Ingram: Explosive regulations miss the target

By Craig Ingram - 12th October 2004 - Back to News

Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, says the State Government’s bill to prevent the sale of ammonium nitrate is purely just "window dressing" and will impact on legitimate users of the product, such as farmers, without reducing the threat of terrorism.

Speaking on the Dangerous Goods Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2004 in Parliament last week, Mr Ingram said although he supported the government's introduction of the bill, he believed there were a number of inconsistencies with it.

"The bill will impact on the legitimate uses of a product without necessarily removing the threat of terrorists using fertilisers and other products as explosives," Mr Ingram said.

"I have experience in using ammonium nitrate as an explosive on the farm.

"Many agriculture producers use explosive-grade ammonium nitrate, and all the mining and non-military explosives are produced from it.

"When you look at the broad regulation making powers in the legislation you have to ask whether we should continue with a process that will have an impact on legitimate commercial uses when we are not actually addressing the problem.

"We have to do everything in our power to protect ourselves from terrorism, there is no doubt about that, but the question we have to come back to is: will restricting access to ammonium nitrate for legitimate uses address the problem?

"As you can see from the experience in Ireland, terrorists will just move on to using other products, such as happened in the World Trade Centre bombing where urea was used.

"I am sure all the agriculture producers would object strongly if similar restrictions were placed on the use of urea, which is one of the most common fertilisers used in Victoria.

"The information is quite easily available, and a quick search of the internet shows very clearly that unfortunately information on alternatives is available for terrorists; there you will find a whole range of different explosive products available to terrorists.

"I would prefer we look at investigating and then implementing action to render these common agricultural fertilisers less explosive rather than restricting access to them. I think that would be a better way for the state and the nation to go.

"I understand that we are implementing nationally agreed COAG principles, and because of that I have supported the legislation.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com