Gallagher Martin: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
Gallagher Martin: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15320] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 First of all I join previous speakers in acknowledging and paying respects to Tumu Putaura who was a security officer for 21 years. Along with other members I pay my condolences to his family. I acknowledge that Tumu Putaura’s 21 years of service reminds us of the people who give service to Parliament by sitting in the Chamber but there are many others who give service to Parliament the parliamentary precinct and the functioning of Parliament in other ways. It is very timely that I should specifically identify and give my very deep heartfelt thanks to our wonderful men and women who conduct the security service in particular along with others. Our thoughts and our prayers are with Tumu Putaura’s family at this time. 
This bill is very appropriate in terms of coming from the Manukau City Council. I take the opportunity to acknowledge the presence in the Chamber of Su’a William Sio who is now the former Deputy Mayor of the city of Manukau. I think it is very appropriate that as a former deputy mayor he should be participating in this particular debate. I also take the opportunity to join with the previous speaker Dr Richard Worth in paying a huge tribute to the Hon George Hawkins. Richard Worth was acknowledging the massive contribution of the Hon George Hawkins to Auckland politics and to the city of Manukau. The only difference is that Dr Richard Worth talked in the context of some sort of farewell. Well folks if we look at George Hawkins in the Chamber tonight we see that there is no farewell about him. He is hot to trot and he will continue to make a huge contribution to the people of Manukau and to Auckland. 
I was a member of the Local Government and Environment Committee that sat through this bill and I enjoyed National’s contribution. I saw on the video monitor Mr Mark Blumsky himself a former Mayor of Wellington. The reality is that the National members of the committee when they considered this bill acknowledged some of the issues the problems and the challenges. With due respect I say that I think they went back to their caucus and said: “This is the approach we are going to take.” If members look at the proceedings of the select committee they will see that National members made a constructive contribution but it is misguided and wrong for them to suggest that Labour members did not care about the issue. 
The problem we had at the time was in terms of the fact that this was a local bill. I have shared with the Hon George Hawkins and Ross Robertson two fine members the point that although this was a local bill we needed to take a parallel look at a nationwide strategy. It is just a basic thing—if people go into the Warehouse and buy a spray-can they do not go to the Warehouse in neighbouring Auckland City or Waitakere because they cannot buy it in Manukau but they can buy it everywhere else in greater Auckland. 
Parallel with this bill is the Government legislation that is now currently before the Law and Order Committee which I sit on. We are giving consideration to that bill and we want to come back to the House with the bill as soon as we can. It will dovetail very very neatly with the Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill. 
I also take the opportunity to acknowledge the fact that Mayor Barry Curtis the Manukau City Council and community and certainly my own community of Hamilton City—especially with the work that we are doing in the Hamilton City Council—have been huge catalysts for the bill and also for the Stop programme that is being developed. I also pay tribute to Len Brown for his excellent leadership. 
Like other members of the Committee I have walked around Manukau at 1 o’clock in the morning with some really great security officers. I have looked at the tagging and I have talked to the Maori wardens. [ 
Interruption 
] I am talking about MPs on this side of the Chamber—I do not know about people on the other side—being on the job and talking to Maori wardens. I also take the opportunity to pay tribute to those wonderful community workers in places like the city of Manukau and elsewhere in the country. These people walk the talk and make a wonderful wonderful contribution. I will be asking for their views and input in respect of this bill. I did not just sit in a select committee and make nice speeches like some of those National members did; I got out amongst the people. That is the example I follow from George Hawkins and Ross Robertson who as members get out amongst the people. I acknowledge their role.