Chief Minister’s cracker claims fire up fireworks sellers

MORE than 60 tonnes of fireworks are sitting in storage left over from previous Cracker Nights, but the Chief Minister has doubled down on his ban. But what do you think? VOTE in our POLL

An employee of Fireworks Warehouse stands in front of one of their three containers full of fireworks. They think Cracker Night should go ahead. Picture: Che Chorley

MORE than 60 tonnes of fireworks are sitting in storage leftover from previous Cracker Nights, but the Chief Minister has doubled down on his ban on blowing stuff up this year.

Michael Gunner rejected calls on Thursday to allow Territorians to set off fireworks left over from last year’s Cracker Night celebrations instead of shipping in new ones from China.

“We’re not allowing the sale of fireworks; for me, this is about Territorians, not southern importers,” he said.

“No way there is anywhere near enough crackers (in storage) for Territorians to be happy this year.

“Why would I do that? I’m not going to half-ass it.”

Fireworks Warehouse director Rob Balfour said he knew of four Northern Territory suppliers, including himself, who had at least 60 tonnes of leftover fireworks between them.

“That’s rubbish to say we don’t have enough; I’m 100 per cent confident there’s enough supply up here,” he said.

“I’ve got 40 pallets (25 tonnes) of fireworks in storage for the NT, which is about the same amount of crackers I sold last year.”

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Fireworks Australia director Martin Brady said his company had about 35 pallets (15 tonnes) of fireworks in storage that could be used.

“There’s no risk of viral contact with fireworks that are already here,” he said.

“I don’t understand why they can’t be used for some type of limited celebrations.

“Otherwise they’ll just stay in storage until next year.”

Kevin Gibson from Impact Wholesale Fireworks said they had 30 pallets (12 tonnes) in storage.

“We do our three big shops up here every year, and 30 pallets are enough to fill them all up plus more,” he said.

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“We’re capable of selling without having to ship new stuff in. I know other suppliers have quite a bit in storage as well that could be used for celebrations in Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine.”

Jason Baeck from Rockstar Fireworks said he had about 30 pallets or 10 tonnes of fireworks in storage.

“We love coming up to the Territory so it would be a real shame to miss out this year,” he said.