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Ingram takes ammonium nitrate concerns to the Prime Minister

By Craig Ingram - 29th November 2004 - Back to News

The Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has written to both the Prime Minister and the Premier of Victoria expressing his concerns at the impacts of the implementation of the COAG agreed Principles for the Regulation of security sensitive Ammonium Nitrate (SSAN) and other products.

In the letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Ingram said the implementation of this legislation and the COAG Review of Hazardous Materials on a broad range of fertiliser products (like Calcium Ammonium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate and potentially Urea, as well as other agriculture chemicals) will place significant financial and productivity constraints on legitimate users without reducing the availability of potentially explosive products.

"The process we are pursuing will be severely compromised and criticised if one chemical agent is restricted and another - which is an equal threat - is not," Mr Ingram said.

"It is evident to me that the current legislation and regulation on SSAN will not achieve the outcome desired by governments to protect our community.

"There is an incredible range of products available to terrorist organisations to manufacture explosive devices. Many of these are regular household chemicals, such as pool chlorine.

"The impact of this legislation and COAG agreement has already resulted in supplies of fertilisers such as Calcium Ammonium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate and Sodium Nitrate drying up. The agriculture industry will be crippled if these and other fertilisers are subjected to this regulatory regime.

"I believe that solutions are available to the government within its COAG agreements to provide protection to the community from the explosive grade prilled Ammonium Nitrate, whilst maintaining reasonable access to other less volatile fertiliser products.

"I believe that we need to reconsider the current course of action being pursued by the government as it will not achieve the desired outcome and is just punishing legitimate users of the products.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com