Selling or Trafficking?

Alice Springs Mayor Fran Kilgariff said she agrees with Senator Scullion that trafficking petrol should be a criminal offence.

"The problem is how you police it. How can you tell, or prove, that someone is trafficking petrol to addicts, or simply selling petrol to someone to put in their car," said Mayor Kilgariff.

After meeting with Senator Nigel Scullion on 26 September, Mayor Kilgariff said council is resigned to the fact that a complete roll out of non-sniffable fuel in Alice Springs will not happen.

Mayor Kilgariff said the Alice Springs community would come under increasing strain without the complete roll out of Opal fuel in the town.

"There are 200 addicts in town and services are already stretched to the limit.

"There are an estimated 500 petrol sniffers out in the communities able to come into town to get petrol supplies.

"The money for rehabilitation programs is going to the communities, but it doesn't look likely that any will come to Alice Springs, she said.

Senator Scullion told council it would have to look at other measures than a complete roll out in Alice Springs.

He said at this stage there is not a lot of displacement of petrol addicts to the town.

"Displacement may well occur when the roll out to seventeen communities around Alice Springs happens," said Senator Scullion.

"We need to ensure that there are rehabilitation programs tied to employment so that a partial roll out of non-sniffable petrol in Alice Springs will work."

Alice Springs petrol retailers are supportive of the partial roll out, said Senator Scullion, and have been provided information on the suppliers where people from the communities fuel up.

However, they are concerned about what their roles and responsibilities are if they do suspect someone of buying petrol to traffic.

"Information will be collected on compliance and various enforcement bodies will enforce it," said Senator Scullion.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/petrol.html
Pubdate: Friday, 07 October 2005
Source: Territory Times (Australia)
Author: Delia Allen
Email: territorytimes@iprimus.com.au
Copyright: 2005 Territory Times