King Annette: Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
King Annette: Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16624] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 First of all I thank the members of the Law and Order Committee for the work they did on this bill the Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill. The bill has come about because at the end of the day this Parliament and the people of New Zealand have had enough of graffiti vandalism. I agree with the member Judith Collins that graffiti is not art; it is vandalism. 
There is a difference between graffiti art and graffiti vandalism. No doubt members of this House have seen some wonderful graffiti art done by artists. But what we see on the properties of New Zealanders—individuals and businesses—around this country has nothing to do with art. It is offensive and it is a violation of people’s property. There is a cost to it and it leaves people feeling very angry indeed. They do not know why someone would come along with a spray-can or a felt-tip pen and write mindless rubbish on their property. They cannot understand what it is about. 
This bill tries to address the graffiti vandalism problem we have in New Zealand. It is not peculiar to South Auckland; it is found in all parts of New Zealand. The problem is worse in some of our big cities and we see a greater cost in those places but no area is free of it. This bill builds on the work done by George Hawkins and I say to Judith Collins that he was supported. His bill came to our caucus and it was supported. But the problem with the bill was that it related only to Manukau and as I have just said graffiti vandalism is an issue for all New Zealand. A bill that dealt with only one area was not going to work. As we know people can cross the boundary of Manukau City go into another area pick up spray-cans return to Manukau and spray as much as they like. This bill however will have a nationwide effect. 
I say to Ron Mark that I agree with many of the comments he made about the work done in the Law and Order Committee. I thank Chester Borrows for his contribution in terms of adding to Part 1 and in my view making it better. I agree with imposing community sentences. We know that many young people will not and cannot pay a big fine. This bill allows for a community sentence and/or a fine to be imposed. I imagine that in many cases where young people go out and violate somebody’s property they will if they are caught be carrying out a community sentence. 
The police officer who has put a lot of effort into this issue comes from Miramar which is in my community—my constituency. I support totally what he has done in cleaning up graffiti in Miramar. We had a real problem there. He went out as a community constable—in my view a front-line officer—and helped clean up graffiti in that area. I do not apologise to anyone for the way he has gone about doing it because the people of Miramar are delighted to see that those who were committing graffiti vandalism in the area have got their just rewards for what they did. 
Part 1 as members have already heard introduces two new offences relating to tagging and graffiti vandalism. I think it is part of the solution but it is not the whole answer. It can be only a part of the strategy as I think Kate Wilkinson said in her contribution. There is more to this issue than legislation but legislation is part of the answer.