Fireworks debate: Why the lack of action from politicians is absolutely crackers

Friday, 21 August 2020

2020 got off to a flying start with a fireworks display from the Sky Tower.

OPINION: Some things seem to defy gravity, and one of them is the refusal of politicians to grapple with the ongoing private sale and use of fireworks.

One might have thought that the backing of police, the fire service, vets, animal welfare groups, local government and 28,000 petitioners might have nudged a parliamentary select committee to act, but no.

Auckland Council made the biggest push in the process, arguing before MPs its decision to support a ban, backed by an opinion survey showing 89 per cent support.

After a process running more than a year, the Governance and Administration select committee opted to make “no recommendation” to parliament, effectively killing off the latest move for change.

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Green Party MP Gareth Hughes, in 2018, with Luna the samoyed dog, accepting an 18,000-strong petition to stop the private sale of fireworks.

Firefighters attended 111 fireworks-related incidents in 2018, police took 1000 calls during November 2018, and the Veterinary Association said animals suffer injuries and anxiety.

The future of fireworks in New Zealand is not a simple yes, no decision, but nor can it again simply be left in the too hard basket.

Our current fireworks habit is built on a throwback from New Zealand’s colonial past, marking the failed 1605 plot by Guy Fawkes to blow up the British Parliament.

Paul Majurey chairs Tūpuna Maunga Authority overseeing Auckland’s volcanic cones

Previously-tightened restrictions allow four days of open fireworks sales leading up to the November 5 “Guy Fawkes night” and many are then stashed for private parties or events in other months.

As several submitters to the committee noted, fireworks play a part in the lives of other cultures, especially in Auckland, where 28 per cent of the population is “Asian” according the 2018 Census.

Fireworks are a part of the Indian Diwali Festival and Chinese New Year, where fireworks are allowed only in controlled and managed public displays.

SPCA has been pushing for a ban on the private sale of fireworks for many decades.

So it’s not a question just of shutting down widespread use around Guy Fawkes night, but looking at rules relating to other dates.

The first sign of renewed action on further restricting fireworks, has come from Paul Majurey, the chair of Tūpuna Maunga Authority, the council-iwi body which manages the city’s volcanic cones.

In 2019, the private use of fireworks sparked large blazes on Maungarei/Mt Wellington and on Maungawhau/Mt Eden, with another blaze in April this year.

Fireworks are already banned on the Maunga, and Majurey wants to close the cones this November, saying he is “extremely disappointed” the MPs did not act.

He planned to lobby Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, to act, at least to protect the city’s “iconic ancestral landscapes”.

Majurey should not be alone in calling for action on reviewing the place of fireworks in a modern, environmentally and culturally aware society.

One of the country’s longest-established fireworks traders told MPs that education and tougher enforcement of those misuse fireworks was the answer, and not a ban on retail sales.

Whether it warrants greater use of public resources, and agencies’ time is debatable.

However a debate is needed, rather than a political kick-for-touch.

Catherine Bindon, whose petition to the committee attracted 28,000 signatures, described the outcome as politicians not wanting to be the “fun police”.

With Covid-19 and then a general election currently top of people’s minds, we will probably reach Guy Fawkes 2020 with another round of fires and harmful incidents, and public outrage.

It is to time recognise that it is not the “fun” of fireworks, but the harm, that needs real political attention.