Car yards urged to take up non-sniffable fuel

An Aboriginal council in Alice Springs has called on all car yards in the town to only use a new fuel that is not attractive to petrol sniffers.

Blair McFarland from Tangentyere Council says one car yard in Alice Springs has been broken into almost 300 times in the past year by sniffers looking for petrol.

He says the Federal Government should subsidise the new non-sniffable petrol known as OPAL so it can be used in car yards in Alice Springs.

"You can only get subsidies in certain identified remote communities and it's not available in Alice Springs," Mr McFarland said.

The manager of one car yard, Alan Thorpe says he would use the subsidised fuel but he says more needs to be done.

"If we're going to put some money into something let's create something for these kids to do," Mr Thorpe said.

The Federal Government has already committed to subsidising opal in 60 remote communities in Australia.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 26 May 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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