The Wash: Debate over fireworks reignited

Yay, it's Guy Fawkes night! Pretty fireworks everywhere. Happy, smiling children aplenty. Retailers' cash registers working overtime. Yay some more! 

But wait, what's that dark cloud looming on the horizon? Oh no, it's a New Zealand Herald headline yesterday - ‘‘Key hints fireworks ban possible''. 

(Let me see now: will I sell more state houses, change the flag, join the war on Islamic State or ban fireworks? Hmm. Another tough day in the Beehive.) 

As it happens, our PM kind of dodged this one, according to the Herald story, conceding that while a ban on fireworks is getting closer, he was reluctant to just impose one in case the Government stood accused of running a ‘‘nanny state''.

‘‘You don't want to take away the last bit of fun that people have but, in reality, they [fireworks] do present a risk both to pets and to personal safety.''

Instead, Mr Key said he had detected a gradual public groundswell towards a ban on private sales, so he preferred to ‘‘take the public with us'' on this issue.

Well, others have not been quite so cautious in this annual reheating of the fireworks debate. Here's a sample of recent news items:

The SPCA does not support the private sale and use of fireworks and has long called for a ban on the sale of fireworks to the public. (3.11.14)

‘‘Fireworks spark 15 fire callouts'' (The Press, 4.11.14)

A Hamilton man said he did not see a horse, spooked by fireworks at a public display, that all but wrote off his $14,000 Holden on Saturday. The horse died at the crash scene. (NZME, 4.11.14)

Aucklanders wanting to celebrate Guy Fawkes must find a public display or stay in their backyards after the Auckland council, in May this year, banned fireworks from public places. (NZME, 31.10.14)

‘‘The downward trend over the past six years in injuries and fires from the use of fireworks is encouraging. However,any significant increasewould trigger a revision and the considerationof tighter regulations.'' Environment Minister Nick Smith(1.11.14)

This morning in Wellington, a parliamentary select committee will meet to discuss a petition calling for a ban on fireworks sales. Dubbed ‘‘Ban the Boom -

Speak up for Our Animals'', it would allow only public displays, to avoid distress to animals, and was organised by Ponsonby film-maker Charlotte Purdy, who gathered 26,000 signatures online.

As a counter, lobby group Family First NZ says it rejects calls for a fireworks ban - ‘‘a fireworks BBQ party is one of the great family rituals for Kiwi families'' - and urges the committee to impose strong regulations on types of fireworks, who can sell them, and when.

Now, without wishing to get too philosophical, let me ask you a simple question: Is it (A) still relevant, in 2014, for New Zealanders to be ‘‘celebrating'' (?) the famous Gunpowder Plot in England in 1605 (yes, 409 years ago)?

Or (B) has Guy Fawkes night long since ceased to be the anniversary of a failed attempt at terrorism, to become, instead, just an excuse for everyone to let off a bit of steam (and a couple of ‘‘boom boxes'' of pyrotechnics) - in short, to have some fun?

I think the answer is clearly ‘‘B'', which raises my next point: I suspect heaps of fireworks bought within the limited time span allowed by government regulation in early November end up being stored away for arguably an even more important event on our social calendars - New Year's Eve!

So, doesn't that make Guy Fawkes night even more irrelevant?

I have to admit I take no great pleasure from writing all this because, as I've admitted in previous columns, I've been a fireworks fan since the days of short pants and short back and sides.

But, here's the thing. Last year I couldn't resist one of the last-minute fireworks ‘‘bargains'' and bought two big boxes for the price of one. But I ended up only letting a handful off in the back yard and the rest are still sitting in their boxes, fate unknown.

I think, perhaps, I'm trying to tell myself something.

FOOTNOTE:If we were, in future, solely reliant on public displays of fireworks at Guy Fawkes in Dunedin, who would run them? The DCC reports no applications this year for such events on city reserves.

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