Blumsky Mark: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — Third Reading 
Blumsky Mark: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15751] 
MARK BLUMSKY (National) 
: 
 In the 1 minute that I have left before we break for dinner I want to comment on the speech I have just heard. The last words that the member for Hamilton West said were that he is proud that he heeded the call. Before that dissertation we heard him asking what everyone had heard—what the country had heard. I just remind the country of what it did hear. It heard that member Martin Gallagher from Hamilton West vote against this legislation. I was on the Local Government and Environment Committee with him and he voted against this legislation. He stood there and said to listen to members on this side of the House and where they stand but we need to remind everyone listening that he voted against this bill. That was rather hard to pick up in the speech that we have just heard. 
The National Party has always supported this bill right along a path that has been rather tortuous I would have to say. Guess what? We are not supporting the bill because it is election year; we are supporting it because it sends a message. I will give members that message after dinner. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
MARK BLUMSKY 
: It is nice to have the chance to speak again on the Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill. I see Mr Gallagher leaving the House. [ 
Interruption 
] I welcome him back. I took the opportunity before the dinner break to remind Mr Gallagher which way he voted on this bill and to point out that he did not support it—not that I could tell that from his speech. I tell him that there are no hard feelings. I will be in Hamilton on Friday and Saturday so I would hate to think he might take personally anything I have said! 
National has always supported this bill and we have done so from the start. Mr Hide made the presumption that we have supported the bill because it is election year; we have actually supported it because we believe graffiti is a very serious issue. 
I would suggest to Mr Hawkins that it is not the perfect bill. It is not the bill that National members would have written if we had had the chance. But we have supported it quite simply because the Government needs to be sent a message. We felt that by supporting this local bill we could send the Government a message and that message is quite simple: the public are absolutely fed up to here with the problem of graffiti. The public are incredibly serious about this issue and about wanting it to be handled now. It is not just the public; every jolly council in the country is having the same problem and wants something done about it now. But the Government was not doing a damn thing. 
The Government released a strategy in 2005 which it said was a wonderful strategy to be completed by the year 2010—its five-step strategy for graffiti. The Government said that it would start the strategy in 2005 and complete it in 2010. Well that is just not good enough at all. The public want action and it was because George Hawkins had brought this local bill to Parliament that we took the opportunity to tell the Government to get off its bloody backside to sort out the problem and to sort it out now—2010 ain’t good enough. The Government has to be joking. 
I was one of those who sat on the Local Government and Environment Committee and I heard every submission. I can tell members now that there was heartache and anguish from the submitters. I also took the opportunity to visit the cities of Manukau and Waitakere. 
Graffiti is a cancer. It is a cancer that grows. We see one bit of graffiti then we walk past the next day and see two bits of graffiti and the next day there is three and four and it spreads. It spreads like a cancer and before we know it we accept it and we do not notice that it has grown. This is bloody dangerous to society because it affects safety it affects how people feel it affects trade—how good business is in those areas—and it affects people’s property. That is just not good enough and it cannot be tolerated. 
It does not happen just in Manukau and it does not happen just in Waitakere; it happens in the rest of the country. I live in the middle of Wellington City by a park. A gentleman there has been re-plastering his house. The wall of the house fronts up against the park just outside my place. For 6 months he has had scaffolding there and he has slowly been re-plastering his house. He finished on the weekend and took the scaffolding down. Can members guess what was there on Monday morning on the entire wall that he had spent 6 months re-plastering? That is just so cruel. It is so cruel that that man has worked with his hands re-plastering the wall and then lo and behold some hooligans come along vandalise it and ruin it for him. Members can imagine the anguish he must feel. 
We do not need to put up with that any more. We need to send a message not only to the Government to get off its backside and do something but also to the taggers. We need to say that zero tolerance is where we want to be and that we will not tolerate any graffiti tagging at all. We have to make sure that any further legislation coming through Parliament supports local government and gives it the resources it needs to eradicate graffiti with speed because we have to eradicate it with speed. There should be zero tolerance. It was fantastic to see that a judge gave a prison sentence to a tagger the other day. 
The National Party is proud to support George Hawkins and his efforts with this local bill. I say to the member that he is stubborn and has tenacity. I congratulate him on his endeavours to bring this bill to the House having had the kickbacks and setbacks that he has had. I congratulate Manukau and I congratulate Bob Harvey and his wonderful team at Waitakere. Without the volunteers and the support of the councils the difference would not have been made in those areas. I congratulate George I wish him luck and I say to him that we can make a difference in this place can we not?