Australia’s taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda network broadcaster is playing at being the Fun Police again. Taking a break from finger-wagging the long-suffering taxpayers who pay their cushy salaries about carbon emissions, alcohol, sugar or mask-wearing, the ABC is now targeting the last Australians still allowed to enjoy a good, old-fashioned Cracker Night.
Who of us who grew up from the 50s to the 70s doesn’t remember Cracker Night? Or, indeed, the weeks leading up, when we’d spend all our pocket money on bungers, Roman Candles, and sky-rockets. Then the big night itself, when everyone in the street would join in with bonfires and bottle-rockets.
It was all great fun. So, of course it was banned by the nanny-staters and finger-waggers.
Tasmania held out on Cracker Night until just a decade ago. That leaves just the Northern Territory.
So, how does the ABC report the last hold-out of fun?
For five hours today, people in the Northern Territory will be able to blow up fireworks with no permits or training, to celebrate Territory Day.
It’s the only time in Australia that the public sale, use and possession of fireworks without a permit is legal.
No permits or training? Why, it’s practically anarchy! Where’s the government regulation? Who’s controlling these deplorables?
Territory Day marks the day when the Northern Territory shook off Commonwealth control and achieved self-government in 1978.
‘Cracker Night’, as the NT’s public fireworks night is known, became associated with it a few years later, in the early ’80s.
Originally held on Guy Fawkes Day, it was moved after the NT parliament decided that date was “inappropriate because it is based on an old English custom … [and] not celebrated in any other State of Australia”.
Guy Fawkes Day was celebrated in every other state — as Cracker Night — until the nanny-staters banned fun.
Even in the Territory, despite the ABC’s claims, it’s regulated to within an inch of its life.
From 9am to 9pm it’s “game on”, according to fireworks wholesaler Luke Caridi.
“They’ll start lining up from 8am, and there’s usually queues out the door; and at 9am, it’s game on, and it’s pretty busy all day,” he said.
“Once lunchtime hits, the in-demand products are sold out.”
From 6pm to 11pm, it’s time to set them off – and there are few limits on where that can be done, with Territory Day community events among the few places off-limits […]
Any fireworks not used by 11pm must be returned to authorities within days, with anyone holding onto the explosives after that risking a hefty $1570 fine […]
Tim Carter, who owns a pub in the Darwin rural area which holds its own display each July 1, said it was up to people to use their own common sense.
ABC Australia
What! Let people use their own common sense? Next you’ll be saying that people should be allowed to make their own health decisions and choose whether or not they should have a dodgy vaccine.
The ABC would rather die — or that you did, anyway.
Anyway, Cracker Night is done and dusted for another year. Which leaves the ABC 364 more days to sniff out any hints of anyone in Australia actually having fun.
