Cosgrove Clayton: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
Cosgrove Clayton: Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15323] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 Before I talk briefly about the Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill I will firstly pay tribute to George Hawkins. If people listen to members on the other side of the Chamber they would think they were listening to a eulogy. Those members have forgotten that George Hawkins will be back again and again and some of them could actually learn from the diligent work of a local member—I know I certainly did. What George Hawkins has done in respect of this bill unlike the member for Monaco—I am sorry Dr Worth—over there is that he has taken up the cudgels on an insidious issue. It is an issue that is an invasion of people’s property rights and we have all been victim of it. There is a particular property down the road from my house with a big green concrete fence. I would say that for the last 8 years that particular fence has been graffitied nearly every week or every second week. The owner goes out and paints over it again and again. What Mr Hawkins is attempting to do with this bill is drive a local issue out of his electorate and what the Government has then done with its own bill is to take many of those ideas add to them and take them out nationwide with its Stop Tagging Our Place programme. 
I will just draw a contrast with the work that is done. There is a collision of ideas on this side of the Chamber. There is some good enthusiasm and members are actually thinking about local problems and local constituencies. I look over the other side and I see the hollowed-out group over there. I ask what they did during their 9 years in office—9 years—to address this issue. They did nothing and I challenge “Barmy Bob”—old Private Jones or Captain Mainwaring—over there in his seat. In the 2½ years that he has been squawking like some sort of a male version of a bantam hen I ask what he has done in Tauranga— 
Nathan Guy 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. That member has been in the House a reasonable time now. He should know that he should address members by their correct name. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: The point is taken—by their correct name. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I am quite happy to ask Mr Bob Clarkson what he has done in 2½ years in this place. Has he proposed a private bill on graffiti? Has he gone out to his community groups and proposed an idea? He may have gone round the rest homes of course. I do not think people will find much graffiti around the retirement homes or the rest homes or the cemeteries. He may have been round those places a bit. But in his electorate he has done nothing. In the 9 long years that the National Party reigned supreme in this country it did absolutely nothing on this issue. Now we get Dr Worth and others getting up—as I think Mr Mark pointed out—with their glowing inconsistent rhetoric and gushing compliments. [ 
Interruption 
] Of course they do not like it. Mr Blumsky will be gone. What has Mr King done in his electorate over the graffiti issue? Part of his electorate borders mine in Waipara. They have problems there but what has Mr King done? What has Pansy Wong done? What has the member who comes from somewhere up Otaki way done? 
Bob Clarkson 
: What have you done? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: No—we have a member who tonight continues the good old Kiwi tradition of good members of Parliament and who actually listens to the mayors—Len Brown Sir Barry Curtis and others—and says: “OK. Let’s turn some ideas into some practicality.” [ 
Interruption 
] The squawk-boxes over there could learn something form that. It is called “work”; it is not called “hot air”. It is not called “sitting on your backside taking the dollars and not doing anything for your constituents.” I invite those members to get up and tell us how many members’ bills or local bills they have proposed in the last few years—2½ years for some and 9 years for others. I think we will find it will be a very very short list. 
It is a bit rich for those members to get up and try to propose empathy with the people of New Zealand who have had their properties or their places of commerce and their shops covered in graffiti. I have been victim of it myself like Mr Sharples. I remember that during the last election I had horns painted over my hoardings. But the great thing about the graffiti on my hoardings was that it gave me more hair which I have to say I was exceptionally gratified about. Some people said it improved my looks. Some people would call that art indeed. But there is a difference. Somebody talked about graffiti art. In my electorate the Belfast Bowling Club commissioned some work by young people. The club’s fence had been done over week after week so it commissioned the young people to do a fantastic mural and from that day it has never been touched. But I invite the cynics and the geniuses on the other side of the House who now try to jump on the bandwagon of this bill to get up and tell us what they have done in their constituencies on the issue.