Collins Judith: Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16621] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 On behalf of the National Party I am pleased to rise to support the Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Bill and to speak to Part 1. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Without seeking to question your decision at all I was wondering whether you could offer an explanation to the Committee as to why you have chosen to take two National Party calls one after the other. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will be seated. The member should look at Speaker’s ruling 25/4. Once I have called a member that is it. The member should also look at the issue of proportionality. 
Ron Mark 
: Point of order— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: If the member is challenging my ruling he had better be careful. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. It is a new point of order. How can you assume that I am challenging your order before I have even opened my mouth? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Mr Mark I made a decision; you rose to question it. Please make your point of order. 
Ron Mark 
: My point of order is that you rabbited that section off so rapidly. Could you please repeat it so I might be able to read it. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: 25/4. 
Ron Mark 
: Thank you Mr Chairman. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Thank you Mr Mark. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: In rising to speak to Part 1 “Graffiti vandalism” I say that it is with a sense of sadness that we in this Chamber are dealing with an issue like tagging and graffiti vandalism in the wake of three brutal murders in Manukau. I know that other MPs in this Chamber—the Hon George Hawkins Ross Robertson and Pansy Wong for instance—feel very deeply that— 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Did you say  
Speakers’ Rulings 
 or the Standing Orders? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Speaker’s ruling 25/4—which relates to the fact that once I have called a member I cannot take the call away. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I am sorry that Mr Mark wishes to interrupt all the way through my speech. Perhaps that is an indication— 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Just for my clarification is it perfectly acceptable for any member to ask the Chair at any time about a reference to the Standing Orders? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Well the member can go one too many sometimes. One has to be careful about how one raises issues in the Chamber. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I was referring to the issue of the three appalling deaths in just the last week in Manukau. Certainly I know that other MPs would join with me in saying that this is a blot on the landscape of New Zealand. People like me who live and work in South Auckland are disgusted that other people have to live with this sort of threat hanging over them. I know that there are people who will say: “Well graffiti doesn’t kill people. This isn’t killing people; this is just a little bit of resistance painting.” I do not hold to that view because the graffiti is being done to mark territory in relation to street gangs—street gangs that currently swagger around the streets thinking they control them; street gangs who have the audacity to go to a liquor shop and kill a father because that is apparently what people do when they run out of booze at a child’s birthday party. That is the sort of disgusting behaviour that we do not want to see in South Auckland or anywhere else. 
There are people in my electorate who say they do not want to be referred to as South Aucklanders any more because the words have such a bad connotation. Well I say that I rejoice in being a South Aucklander. I am one by choice because South Auckland is full of really good people. It is full of people of different ethnic backgrounds people of different incomes and people who respect other people. But there are a few others—the people who wish to tag areas the people who wish to intimidate. The reason these “graffiti artists”—and I use that term in quotation marks—wish to mark their territory is to show who runs the place. They think they run South Auckland and they think they run Manukau. Well they do not and it is about time this Parliament stood up to them. 
I know that restricting the sale of cans will not stop all these people but it does send a signal to the people of South Auckland and elsewhere in New Zealand. It sends the signal that we care enough to say that it is not OK to do this to other people. It is absolutely not OK. I congratulate George Hawkins because his member’s bill was the forerunner to this bill. His Government did not back him; George backed himself—and good on him! We over here backed him and I congratulate him. I know that civil libertarians will be deeply worried about someone’s right to mark someone else’s property. Well too bad for them! They should get with it. All they need to do is let them go and mark their own property and they should be very happy. 
I suggest to people who do not understand what it is like to live and work in this area—and to fear as so many people do—that they come out of central Wellington and come to South Auckland to see the good people who live in fear on their own properties. They will see the good people who have decided to rent out their properties because they are too scared to stay there. That is what I saw yesterday. And I suggest they go to Mrs Singh and explain to her as I did what we can do—which is not an awful lot. 
I also think that they should back the police and not bag them. The police do their very best. We do not have enough police in South Auckland. The other thing we do not have enough of is people in the hierarchy of the police who are caring enough to have less political correctness. I think it is funny that Ron Mark should make all sorts of gestures across the Chamber. We know that he is known for that but I say to him that some people in this Committee care a lot more than just making silly gestures. Some of us care enough to think that Part 1 is extremely important. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. For clarification and in my own defence I tell the Committee and you that the only gesture I was making was the signal that you yourself often use to indicate to a member that the debate is narrow. Part 1 is narrow so I ask you Mr Chairperson whether you would bring the member back within the range of Part 1. She has not spoken once actually on either of the clauses in Part 1. She was rambling on as if she were making an election speech and my hand gesture to her was simply to say “Please narrow your comments to Part 1.” It was not meant to make some other sort of statement as she seemed to be implying quite mischievously and quite erroneously. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Thank you Mr Mark. The member’s time has almost expired. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I will end with the comment that the people of South Auckland and the people of New Zealand have had enough of graffiti. I congratulate the people who are voting for this bill on having the courage to do so.