King Annette: Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Annette: Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4409. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai) 
: 
 I join the two previous speakers Trevor Mallard and Nicky Wagner in supporting this Hutt City Council (Graffiti Removal) Bill brought to the House by the Hon Trevor Mallard a very good local member who works hard in his constituency. I would like to congratulate the Mayor of Hutt City Ray Wallace whom I would never mention is here to witness this today. The work that was done by Mayor Ray Wallace and his council is to be applauded. 
I would like to also thank the Local Government and Environment Committee. This was one of those bills that went through the select committee very well chaired by Nicky Wagner who gave good opportunity for people to make submissions and for there to be input on what was seen to be a very sensible piece of legislation for a local community. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Put her on Finance and Expenditure. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Perhaps Nicky Wagner would like to chair the Finance and Expenditure Committee. She has got a very good way about her. I would have to say that I would like to see this bill extended across many councils throughout New Zealand. I hope it does become a Government bill. Perhaps Trevor Mallard as a new Minister in the next Labour Government in 2½ years’ time might like to take this issue up to become part of Government legislation. 
I have to say that I was highly annoyed when I went out of my house last week and found on my dark green garage a piece of tagging. There was absolutely nothing artistic about this tagging on my garage at all. So I say to Nicky Wagner that there is a difference between something that looks appealing and attractive or even acceptable and somebody’s ridiculous scrawl over your garage. The worst thing about it is that you do not necessarily have any of that paint left to paint it out. 
I think this bill is a very good move for local authorities. This move is because they had a particular problem out in the Hutt. In fact Lower Hutt is on a par with one of the worst areas for tagging in New Zealand. The worst tagging is tagging that is not removed from private property. Businesses are very keen to get it off their businesses. Most residents are keen to get it off their fences but there will always be some private residents who do not actually live in the area or who do not get around to cleaning it up and what it does to a community I think is give a message somehow or other that people do not care about their community and that they do not have pride in it. And as Trevor Mallard said it can make the place look as if it is unsafe. So removing graffiti from private property as soon as possible is very important particularly if the private resident does not get around to doing it. 
We looked at this bill and actually there were not a lot of changes made to the original bill. One of the things that we did do was clarify the purpose statement to state that the purpose is to allow the removal from private property of graffiti that is visible from a public place and could not be any wider. This is not about a grab by local authority to invade people’s private property and slap its paint on other people’s property; it is very much narrowed to the removal of graffiti on private property that is visible from a public place. 
There was some concern at the initial stage that maybe councils might misuse this power. We also said that we require the council to state on the graffiti removal notice the power that it is relying on. We also require the person removing the graffiti to take a copy of that notice and to carry adequate identification with them when removing the graffiti because it is important that the right people do the job and that they have got the right authorisation. 
These were some of the minor things that we actually did correct in the bill itself but overall it is a very good bill. It is supported by members of this House. You know sometimes the public out there think that we spend all our time battling with each other over legislation and issues. There are times when we come together on an issue and we agree. I think there would be very few people around the country who would disagree that graffiti is unwanted in our community. If we can do something to remove it as quickly as possible then it is good for all of us. Of course those who tag your property would like to see it there as long as possible. It is kind of like showing off only it is showing off at the expense of innocent people who do not deserve it. 
Congratulations to the Hutt City Council on this bill. We support it and I hope that it can be looked at for other councils in New Zealand.